Ultraviolet Spectrophotometry of Stars
Mauve is a UV satellite conceived to study stars in our galaxy, providing a greater understanding of their magnetic activity, powerful flares, and the impact on the habitability of neighbouring exoplanets. The science programme will be delivered via a multi-year collaborative survey programme, with thousands of hours each year available for long observations of hundreds of stars, unlocking a significant time domain astronomy opportunity.
Stellar Science
UV Spectrophotometry (200-700 nm)
Collaborative 3-Year Survey
October 2025 Launch
Science Opportunity
Mauve will significantly increase the availability of UV spectra, providing a rare opportunity to revisit bright, active stars inaccessible since observations were delivered from the International Ultraviolet Explorer (IUE) in 1996 and Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) in 2013. Mauve’s wide wavelength range and field of regard will empower scientists with the data they need to better understand the physics of Stellar magnetic activity. Member scientists will contribute to a broad range of evolving science cases and will collaborate to build the multi-year survey programme prior to the commencement of mission operations in 2025.
Flare Monitoring
Flaring stars are often associated with high stellar magnetic activity and their impact on exo-systems’ space weather is still under debate. However, their nature and physical properties are poorly understood due to a shortage of data.
Mauve will obtain light curves and spectra for thousands of flares, super-flares, and megaflares across its ultraviolet and visible wavelength ranges. This will provide valuable insights on flare energy distribution, UV flare statistics and the UV-visible flare energy ratio. This data will be used as inputs for flare models, astrobiological irradiation experiments, and photochemical models.
Flare Evolution
Long-duration and repeat observations of stars are crucial to understanding flare frequency and evolution through time.
Mauve’s short-cadence observations will unlock the amplitude duration and integration area of the flare, enabling the measurement of the flare peak time, t1/2 flare duration proxy, and equivalent duration, shown to be correlated with the stellar parameters. Exploring flares on dwarfs and giants, Mauve will expand our knowledge of flare evolution on a large variety of stars via a homogeneous database.
Exoplanet Hosts
Improving our knowledge of the physical properties of exoplanets requires studies of chemical abundances and magnetic activity of the host star.
Through time-domain astronomy, Mauve will monitor the magnetic activity of exoplanet hosts, revealing the effects of stellar UV radiation on photochemistry. Mauve’s wide wavelength range is not only sensitive to photochemistry and magnetic heating processes in NUV, but covers the entire UVC, UVB, and UVA regimes (200-400 nm) which would act as empirical, indispensable data for assessing exoplanet habitability.
Chromospheric Activity
The stellar chromospheric activity in shorter wavelengths is not well understood due to a shortage of data. Stellar models are not yet capable of predicting the UV, EUV, and X-ray emission of stars accurately.
Mauve will provide the UV part of the electromagnetic spectrum that is sensitive to temperature and the composition of a star’s outer layers. Using long baseline observations, Mauve will reveal the processes occurring in a star’s atmosphere, such as the presence of hot spots, magnetic activity, and changes in temperature.
Binary Systems
Continuous monitoring of evolved tidally locked binaries that show strong magnetic activity and flux variability in the UV regime is of great importance.
Collecting a spectral database of these systems provides information on stellar evolution, stellar parameters, mass determination, period-luminosity relationships, activity, and aids in exoplanet detection. Binary star systems also offer a unique opportunity to study the effects of stellar interactions and mass transfer significantly influencing their evolution, leading to phenomena such as accretion and flares. Additional variability of these systems due to changes in the mass transfer rate or the geometry of the accretion process can be measured by Mauve’s continuous, well-calibrated spectra.
The Satellite
Mauve is being built in collaboration with leading satellite and instrument manufacturers C3S and ISISPACE. The high-heritage approach to the design and component selection will deliver a high-specification astronomy satellite within the short timeframes usually associated with commercial satellites. The satellite will operate in a low-Earth orbit, maximising opportunities for science observations along the ecliptic plane.
Survey Programme
Mauve’s structured survey programme will bring together an international collaboration of scientists to study hundreds of stars, leading to high-impact science publications. Thousands of observational hours will be dedicated to each year of the survey, with many stars continuously available within Mauve’s wide field of regard, enabling long baseline observations and unlocking a significant time domain astronomy opportunity.
Mauve’s survey science programme will be decided by its members and is open to any scientist worldwide. Members will utilise the Blue Skies Space innovative collaboration portal, Stardrive, providing a comprehensive suite of data management, performance simulation and mission planning tools. Regular data releases will be made to all members throughout the survey’s three-year lifetime with the Blue Skies Space team providing full-time support to assist in the provision and exploitation of the data.
Scientists and research organisations can access the survey programme via an annual membership plan tailored to suit the needs of individuals, groups and institutions. The survey actively encourages the involvement of PhD students and early career scientists.
Founding Members
Boston University
National Astronomical Observatory of Japan
INAF – Osservatorio Astrofisico di Arcetri
Rice University
Vanderbilt University
Western University
Acknowledgement of EU Funding
The Mauve satellite is being developed in close collaboration with consortium partners in the UK and Europe. Blue Skies Space Ltd. and Blue Skies Space Italia S.R.L. are responsible for the overall project delivery and payload provision, C3S Electronikai Fejleszto KFT for the satellite platform, with support from ISIS – Innovative Solutions in Space BV for high-performance AOCS. The University of Kent and the Europlanet network will help liaise with the scientific community to help maximise the scientific return of Mauve.
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 101082738.