Previous
abstract 
Next
abstract
Session 41 - Visible & UV Telescopes.
Display session, Thursday, January 08
Exhibit Hall,
The Cosmic Origins Spectrograph (COS) will be installed aboard the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) during the fourth HST Servicing Mission in 2002. COS is a high-throughput UV spectrograph that is optimized for observing faint point sources, such as distant quasars or reddened stars. We will review the spectrograph design and capabilities, and summarize the science goals of the COS Science Team. COS will bring the diagnostic power of UV spectroscopy to bear on such fundamental issues as the ionization and baryon content of the intergalactic medium and the origin of large-scale structure in the Universe; the ages, dynamics, and chemical enrichment of galaxies; and stellar and planetary origins. COS will build on the legacies of Copernicus, IUE, GHRS, FOS, STIS, and in the future, FUSE, giving HST the greatest possible grasp of faint UV targets, a capability perhaps not available from future space-based observatories for decades. COS will complement and extend the suite of HST instruments, ensuring that HST maintains a powerful UV spectroscopic capability from 2002 until the end of its mission.
