Space Astronomy The UV Window to the Universe [Paperback]

The field of ultraviolet astronomy offers unequalled scientific promise yet has not been blessed with a multitude of space missions (as has been the case for other spectral domains). This book contains a distillation of the communitys views on the topic and the desires for future observational facilities. As such, it provides the most up-to-date information on the topic of ultraviolet astronomy from a very broad point of view, presenting a compilation of lectures given at a specialist meeting and combining theoretical arguments with observational reports and detailed instrumental information.

Foreword.- Summary of the First NUVA Conference Space Astronomy: the?UV?Window to the Universe.- The Ultraviolet sky surveys: filling the gap in our view of?the?Universe.- Observations of the near and far ultraviolet background.- Studying hot gas using the ultraviolet: High ions in galactic halos.- Metal-line system survey: characterizing the low-redshift IGM.- Local Lyman ? emitters and their relevance to high-redshift star-forming galaxies.- Reionization: characteristic scales, topology and observability.- The ultraviolet morphology of evolved populations.- Young circumnuclear disks in elliptical galaxies.- On some prospects of UV observatories for studies of galaxies-IGM mass exchange.- The starburst-AGN connection: the role of stellar clusters in AGNs.- Active galactic nuclei in the ultraviolet.- Galactic dynamos and galactic winds.- Two-dimensional properties of nearby galaxies.- Solving the mysteries of the diffuse interstellar medium with?high-resolution UV spectroscopy.- O VI in the local interstellar medium.- The formation of planetary disks and winds: an ultraviolet view.- MHD simulations of accretion disks and jets: strengths?and?limitations.- Magnetic activity optimal tracers: from radio to X-ray; the?relevance of UV astronomy.- The dynamic magnetic quiet Sun: physical mechanisms and UV signature.- General Relativity studies through X-ray spectrosló½