NASA has awarded $20 million to a University of Arizona team led by Bengaluru-born astronomer Ramya Anche to build PUFFINS, a specialized ultraviolet space telescope targeted for a 2030 launch to decode the mysteries of interstellar dust.
The selection comes through NASA’s highly competitive Astrophysics Pioneers program, which is specifically designed for early-career scientists leading a space mission for the first time. Dr. Ramya Anche submitted the successful proposal while still a postdoctoral fellow at Steward Observatory before later stepping into her role as an assistant research professor. When the agency greenlit the project, the selection brought with it $20 million in funding to design, build, and launch the SmallSat mission.
Anche grew up in Devanahalli, near Bengaluru, completed her education in various institutions in the city, and enrolled in the Indian Institute of Astrophysics in 2012 before moving to the United States in 2021.
How the Ten-Inch Telescope Will Map Nanometre-Sized Dust Grains
At the center of the PUFFINS spacecraft sits a specialized ultraviolet telescope measuring just 10 inches across—roughly the size of a large dinner plate. From its vantage point in low-Earth orbit, the instrument will observe about 70 distant stars across stellar nurseries, reflection nebulae, and the Magellanic Clouds.
The mission focuses on particles smaller than 50 nanometres, which are roughly the size of a common cold virus. These minute grains remain invisible to most conventional optical and infrared telescopes, yet they dictate how starlight travels across the galaxy.
PUFFINS will study the smallest grains of dust between the stars: particles roughly the size of a common cold virus. These grains are invisible to most telescopes, yet they play a critical role in how starlight travels through the galaxy, and ultimately in our understanding of how new stars and planets form.
Dr. Ramya Anche, Principal Investigator, Steward Observatory
Reviving Ultraviolet Spectropolarimetry After Three Decades
By measuring polarization—the orientation of starlight as it passes through the interstellar medium—the mission aims to solve a half-century-old puzzle. The fundamental origin of interstellar polarization from silicate dust grains was discovered in 1949, but direct space-based ultraviolet observations of these phenomena have been largely limited, with prior efforts conducted in the early 1990s.
Silicate dust grains align with the Milky Way’s magnetic field when spun up, turning them into natural polarizing filters. By observing these interactions across different ultraviolet wavelengths, PUFFINS will fill a long-standing gap in astrophysical data regarding how chemical evolution and galactic temperature regulation operate.
Global Collaboration and Indian Institutional Partners
The PUFFINS team brings together roughly 40 individuals, combining early-career researchers and senior scientists across international boundaries. The core institutional collaboration involves the University of Arizona’s Steward Observatory and the McDonald Observatory.
The mission also includes prominent Indian partner institutions: the Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics in Pune and the Indian Institute of Astrophysics in Bengaluru, where Dr. Anche previously joined in 2012. Corporate mission partners supporting the build include Tucson-based Ascending Node Technologies and SFL Missions Inc. based in Toronto, Canada.
Anche and Van Gorkom have designed PUFFINS to serve as a training ground as much as a science mission, embedding graduate students and undergraduate researchers directly in the instrument development effort from the start. The project personnel working alongside the leadership include Amelia Roosen and Donovan Myrick.
Preparing Groundwork for the Habitable Worlds Observatory
Beyond its immediate scientific goals, PUFFINS serves as a direct technical precursor to NASA’s planned Habitable Worlds Observatory, a flagship space telescope currently slated for development in the 2040s. Data returned by the 10-inch SmallSat will help define the observational capabilities of a prospective UV spectropolarimeter instrument housed on the future flagship mission.
While the spacecraft design and payload assembly advance toward a 2030 lift-off target, the science team is actively acquiring complementary visible and infrared spectro-polarimetry data using university facilities worldwide to enhance the eventual analysis.