Keri Hoadley, who will be joining our faculty in August 2021, is a member of the science and instrument teams for the Aspera mission selected in NASA's Astrophysics Pioneers program. Aspera is a SmallSat that will study galaxy evolution. Through observations in ultraviolet light, it will examine hot gas in the space between galaxies, called the intergalactic medium, and the inflow and outflow of gas from galaxies.

The intergalactic medium is a major component of the universe, but is poorly measured; Aspera would close this gap. The principal investigator is Carlos Vargas at the University of Arizona.