NASA's UVEX telescope will map the violent ultraviolet universe.

NASA is building the Ultraviolet Explorer (UVEX), a $590 million space telescope set to launch in 2031. Developed in partnership with Caltech, it will be the first mission dedicated to creating deep, all-sky maps in ultraviolet light, joining other major survey telescopes like SPHEREx and the Vera C. Rubin Observatory to map the cosmos across multiple wavelengths.

UVEX's advanced CMOS sensors will grant it unprecedented sensitivity, allowing it to peer into explosive cosmic events like neutron star collisions and supernovae. It will also detect millions of nearby, faint galaxies brimming with young, UV-bright stars that are currently invisible to other telescopes. This mission represents a significant leap in astrophysics, unlocking a largely unexplored portion of the electromagnetic spectrum to study the life and death cycles of stars and galaxies.