Agencies-Gaza post
“It is a scientific breakthrough project that will position Israel at the forefront of astronomical research, position it as a rising force in the field of scientific satellites, and provide excellent exposure to the Israeli industry,” Professor Eli Waxman said.
Astrophysicist at the Weizmann Institute of Science and one of the fathers of the first Israeli space telescope, Professor Eli Waxman, set to launch in 2025. “One of the most appealing aspects of our mission is that it is guided by science. We’ve set lofty goals for ourselves, and in order to reach them, we must be the first and best in the field.”
The concept of an Israeli space telescope was conceived more than a decade ago during a discussion between Prof. Waxman, Weizmann Institute scientists, and Zvi Kaplan, then-head of the Israeli Space Agency (ISA), who aimed to advance revolutionary science using Israeli satellites.
The Israeli team began discussing the issue with Caltech colleagues, and they came to the conclusion that the main existing gap in observational astronomy is the ability to detect short-lived and fleeting cosmic events such as supernovae and large star explosions, gamma-ray outbursts, and neutron star mergers in real-time.
The only method to analyze such phenomena, which might span a few weeks or even days, is to identify them in real-time and then point several telescopes of various capabilities, both ground, and space-based, in the relevant direction.
However, because space is vast, the chances of catching such an occurrence in real-time via offhand remarks are limited. Thus, the plan was to launch a wide-field space telescope or one that can photograph a huge portion of the sky at any given time, allowing its operators to detect transitory phenomena in real-time.
