International Ultraviolet Explorer
The International Ultraviolet Explorer ( IUE ) and Explorer 57 was a space telescope for astronomical observations in the ultraviolet region of the electromagnetic radiation.
Overview
IUE was a joint project of NASA, ESA and the British SERC and has been associated with a Delta 2914 rocket into a geosynchronous orbit on 26 January 1978. Instead of the originally planned three to five years IUE was in operation until 30 September 1996. Until then, four of the original six control gyro had failed, but the telescope was still operational with reduced efficiency. The final failure of the controls did not wait, IUE was previously taken mainly for financial reasons out of service by being switched off by radio command. It was one of the most successful and most effective space telescopes.
Technology
IUE had a relatively small telescope with a 45 cm primary mirror diameter. IUE had no camera, the instruments were two spectrograph for wavelengths 115-320 nm with spectral resolution of 300 or 20,000. 104000 About spectra of various astronomical objects were recovered. IUE was operated by two ground stations in the U.S. and Spain. Unlike many other space telescopes could be controlled directly from the observational astronomers.
With the spectra of IUE various problems have been studied, for example,
- Comets and satellites in the solar system
- The interstellar medium of the Milky Way
- The chromospheres of stars
- Hot stars and their stellar winds
- Starburst galaxies and the composition of their stellar population
- Active galactic nuclei
IUE ultraviolet observatory was as the direct precursor of the Hubble Space Telescope