Editorial: UV Astronomy 2011

Abstract

In the past few years space UV astronomy has been seeing somewhat of a renewal, thanks to new facilities coming on line, and others reaching an advanced stage of development. Consequently, we are pleased to present this Special Issue of Astrophysics & Space Science; “UV Astronomy 2011”. This builds on the remarkable progress made in the field since our earlier Special issue: “Space Astronomy: the UV window to the Universe which appeared in 2008. The UV spectral range is of prime interest for astrophysics since it is here that we find the resonance lines of the most abundant atoms and ions in plasmas with temperatures between 3000 K and 300,000 K together with the electronic transitions of the most abundant molecules—H2, CO, OH, CS, S2, CO + 2 , C2, O2 and a number of other species.