LASP Science Seminars

Many spectroscopic observations in astrophysics, planetary science, heliophysics, and earth science benefit from spatial mapping of some sort. In most cases, this requires slit-stepping a conventional long slit spectrograph or the use of a multi-object or integral-field spectrograph. The relatively low reflectivity of UV mirrors and poor transmission of most dielectrics severely restrict the design space of UV multi-object and integral field spectrographs (MOS and IFS, respectively). Over the last decade, the LASP astrophysics group developed several research programs exploring all of the practically feasible approaches to perform UV spectroscopic multiplexing in space. In this talk, I’ll review some of the scientific drivers for improved multiplexed spectroscopy and the technologies we’ve developed to perform such observations. I’ll conclude with an overview of missions and instruments that we are developing, which will perform state of the art observations in the 2030’s and 2040’s.