Paul Scowen (ASU): "Opportunities in Astrophysics Enabled by the Ultraviolet"

Title: Opportunities in Astrophysics Enabled by the Ultraviolet

Abstract: The ultraviolet passband, limited on one end by the atmospheric cutoff and on the other by technological limitations, offers a rich suite of resonance diagnostic lines that can be leveraged to address a wide range of astrophysical problems.  In my talk I will discuss a variety of applications prioritized by the last Decadal (2010) but that have shaped the definition of instruments and missions that straddle the next two decades in their development and possible flight.  This is a somewhat personal perspective but is colored by the priorities identified by the COPAG SIG2 workshop on the future of UV astrophysics from 2015, and addresses missions scales from Cubesats all the way up to Flagships, including Explorers and Probes.  I will discuss some of the possible initiatives the UV community can take to leverage recent technological investments by NASA and other entities to deliver orders of magnitude improvements over what has been possible to date.