International Ultraviolet Explorer was the first space observatory primarily designed to take ultraviolet spectra. The satellite was a collaborative project between NASA, the United Kingdom's Science
A shell of a control and display unit for the International Ultraviolet Explorer (IUE) satellite, preserved in the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center
The core of the science hardware of the IUE: the telescope tube and sunshade extend above the pivot point of the support stand, the cameras are just below, and some of the mirrors and diffraction gratings are at the bottom. The box extending from the midpoint of the assembly covers the location of the spacecraft gyroscopes.
Fully assembled IUE with the telescope tube on top and solar panel extended
Delta 2914 launching IUE spacecraft on 26 January 1978 from Kennedy Space Center
Ultraviolet astronomy
Videos
Ultraviolet astronomy is the observation of electromagnetic radiation at ultraviolet wavelengths between approximately 10 and 320 nanometres; shorter wavelengths—higher energy photons—are studied by X
International Ultraviolet Explorer
…elements have strong absorption lines in the UV so that UV absorption by the interstellar medium provides a powerful tool for studying its composition. Ultraviolet astronomy was impossible before the Space Age, and some of the first space telescopes were UV telescopes designed to observe this previously inaccessible region…
A GALEX image of the spiral galaxy Messier 81 in ultraviolet light. Credit:GALEX/NASA/JPL-Caltech.
Andromeda Galaxy - in high-energy X-ray and ultraviolet light (released 5 January 2016).