GALEX

The Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) is an orbiting space telescope that observes galaxies in ultraviolet light.  Since its launch in 2003, the mission has surveyed tens of thousands of galaxies in ultraviolet light across nine billion years of time.

Little Galaxies Pack a Big Punch - GALEX is helping to determine why the littlest of galaxies produce the biggest of star explosions.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

The mission’s science goals include mapping the history of star formation in the universe and performing ultraviolet all-sky imaging and ultraviolet wide-area spectroscopic surveys.

Along with its many findings, GALEX has already provided new and comprehensive evidence for the "nurture" theory of galaxy evolution, which holds that the galaxies first described by Hubble – the elegant spiral and ball shaped elliptical galaxies -- are evolutionarily linked. GALEX is helping to determine the metal production history of galaxies which will in turn, help scientists understand and account for the origins of the stars and their constituent elements that are observed today.

The GALEX mission is a partnership between NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and includes other universities, science institutes, laboratories, and commercial technology providers from around the world. Caltech in Pasadena, California, hosts the GALEX science center and has overall responsibility for the project. JPL in Pasadena, California, constructed the GALEX science instrument, performed calibration, and is responsible for project management.