MOSCOW. (Yury Zaitsev for RIA Novosti)

Russia is to launch the Spektr-UF ultraviolet observatory, also known as the World Space Observatory, into a highly elliptical orbit in 2010 under the 2006-2015 federal space program. The spacecraft's optical telescope will feature a 1.7-meter main mirror as well as high- and low-resolution spectrographs for photographing and recording the entire visible electromagnetic spectrum.

Scientists will therefore be able to obtain top-quality images of a diverse range of objects in the visible Universe and conduct the most in-depth observations to date. Experts have said the World Space Observatory (Spektr-UF) could become one of the most significant space projects of the next decade.

Russian project manager and Professor of Physics and Mathematics Boris Shustov, who heads the Institute of Astronomy at the Russian Academy of Sciences, said the observatory's huge potential would make it possible to obtain unique results in such areas as the physics of the early Universe,

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