The Cosmic Origins Spectrograph and the Future of Ultraviolet Astronomy

TL;DR

The paper discusses the capabilities of the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph scheduled for installation on Hubble in 2009, highlighting its scientific potential for UV astronomy and future mission planning.

Contribution

It introduces the COS instrument's enhanced capabilities and outlines plans for a large-scale HST spectroscopic legacy project and future UV/O astronomy missions.

Findings

COS will increase far-UV throughput tenfold.

The legacy project will study QSOs, galactic halos, and AGN outflows.

Future mission strategies involve tradeoffs in aperture and wavelength.

Abstract

I describe the capabilities of the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph, scheduled for May 2009 installation on the Hubble Space Telescope. With a factor-of-ten increase in far-UV throughput for moderate resolution spectroscopy, COS will enable a range of scientific programs that study hot stars, AGN, and gas in the interstellar medium, intergalactic medium, and galactic halos. We also plan a large-scale HST Spectroscopic Legacy Project for QSO absorption lines, galactic halos, and AGN outflows. Studies of next-generation telescopes for UV/O astronomy are now underway, including small, medium, and large missions to fill the imminent ten-year gap between the end of Hubble and a plausible launch of the next large mission. Selecting a strategy for achieving these goals will involve hard choices and tradeoffs in aperture, wavelength, and capability.