Weighing supermassive black holes with the UV photon sieve space telescope

The Photon Sieve Space Telescope (PSST) is a space-based ultra high-resolution (5 mas) narrow band (λ/Δλ ≃ 1000) spectral UV imager providing spectral imaging of astronomical objects in Ly - ∝, CIV and NV emission lines. Science obtained with this telescope will revolutionize our understanding of a whole range of astrophysical processes in the local and distant universe. There will be a dramatic increase in the number of observed moderate and large SMBH masses as well as extra-solar protoplanetary disks. The observations will also enable tracing the star formation rates in active galaxies. We present the optical design, the properties and the future implementation of the proposed UV photon sieve space telescope.