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Context

• NASA will launch Israel’s first space telescope mission, the Ultraviolet Transient Astronomy Satellite (ULTRASAT).

ULTRASAT

• ULTRASAT (Ultraviolet Transient Astronomy Satellite) is a space telescope in a smallsat format with a large field of view, 210 square degrees.
• It will detect and monitor transient astronomical events in the near-ultraviolet (220–280 nm) spectral region.
• ULTRASAT will observe a large patch of sky, alternating every six months between the southern and northern hemisphere.
• The satellite will be launched into geosynchronous orbit in early 2026.
• All ULTRASAT data will be transmitted to the ground in real-time.
• Upon detection of a transient event, ULTRASAT will provide alerts within 20 minutes to other ground-based and space telescopes to be directed to the source for further observation of the event in other wavelength bands.
• ULTRASAT will study the hot transient universe. The extra-Galactic volume accessible to ULTRASAT for the discovery of transient sources will be 300 times larger than that of the most sensitive UV satellite to date, GALEX.

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