Conceptual design of a wide-field near UV transient survey in a 6U CubeSat

Abstract

A conceptual design of a wide-field near UV transient survey in a 6U CubeSat is presented. Ultraviolet is one of the frontier in the transient astronomy. To open up the discovery region, we are developing a 6U CubeSat for transient exploration. The possible targets will be supernova shock-breakouts, tidal disruption events, and the blue emission from NS-NS mergers in very early phase. If we only focused on nearby/bright sources, the required detection limit is around 20 mag (AB). To avoid the background and optical light, we chose a waveband of 230-280 nm. As an imaging detector, we employ a delta-doped back-illuminated CMOS. In addition to delta doping, the multi-layer coating directly deposited on the detector enables both a high in-band UV QE and the ultra-low optical rejection ratio. Taking into account these specifications, even an 8 cm telescope can achieve the detection limit of 20 magAB. The expected FoV is larger than 60 deg^2 .

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