Paper 13094-180

The Near-Ultraviolet eXplorer (NUX): a ground-based wide-field near-UV telescope to search for near-UV transients

On demand | Presented live 18 June 2024

Abstract

We present the Near-Ultraviolet eXplorer (NUX), which will consist out of 4 small (36cm diameter) ground-based telescopes that are optimized for the shortest wavelengths that are detectable from Earth (i.e., the near-UV [NUV] wavelength range of 300-350nm). Each telescope will have a field-of-view of ∼17 square degrees sampled at ∼2.6”/pixel, and will reach a NUV magnitude (AB) of 20 in 2.5 minutes exposures (in dark time). The goal of NUX is to improve our understanding of the physical processes that power fast (days) to very fast (hours) hot transients, such as shock-breakout and shock-cooling emission of supernovae and the electromagnetic counterparts of gravitational wave events. Each telescope will be an off-the-shelf 14” Celestron RASA telescope, retrofitted with NUV optics. We have already demonstrated that the normal Schmidt corrector of this telescope can be replaced by a custom made one consisting of NUV transparent glass. Currently, a prototype NUX telescope is being fully assembled to demonstrate the technical and scientific feasibility of the NUX concept. Site tests will be held (in 2025/2026) at La Silla, Chile, to determine the NUV characteristics of the atmosphere at this site.

Presenter

Rudy Wijnands

Univ. of Amsterdam (Netherlands)

Prof. Wijnands obtained his PhD in Feb 1999 at the Anton Pannekoek Institute at the University of Amsterdam. After his PhD, he was Chandra Fellow at the Center for Space Research at MIT followed by a postdoctoral fellowship at the School of Physics and Astronomy at the University of St. Andrews. Since 2004 he has been a staff member at the Anton Pannekoek Institute and full professor since 2017. During his PhD, he worked on X-ray timing data of accreting neutron stars and black holes and discovered the first accreting ms pulsar. After his PhD, he branched out to also study the accretion in such systems at much lower accretion rates as well as when it completely has halted. I.e., he investigated how neutron stars are heated up during the accretion phase and cool down when the accretion has stopped again. The last few years, he has been working on finding transients in the ultraviolet (UV) using satellite data as well as designing a ground-based near-UV surveying telescope (i.e., NUX).

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