NASA’s Roman telescope will survey an area 100 times wider than Hubble’s

NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is scheduled to launch on Sunday, August 30, from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center aboard SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket. From around L2, Roman will study dark energy, dark matter and distant exoplanets through wide-field sky surveys.

NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will be launched into space on Sunday, August 30, from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center aboard SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket. After launch, the observatory is expected to operate around the second Lagrange point of the Sun-Earth system, L2, approximately 1.5 million kilometers from Earth.

Roman’s wide-field sky surveys will be combined with searches for distant exoplanets to investigate the history of the universe’s expansion and the nature of dark energy. The telescope will also examine how dark matter is distributed across vast regions between galaxy clusters.

It will outpace Hubble in wide-field surveys

Roman’s 2.4-meter primary mirror will have the same diameter as the Hubble Space Telescope’s mirror. However, the new observatory has been designed with a field of view approximately 100 times wider than Hubble’s. Roman will therefore be able to observe in a single image a section of sky as large as the area Hubble could survey with approximately 100 images.

The telescope’s main scientific instrument will be the 300-megapixel Wide Field Instrument (WFI). Operating at near-infrared wavelengths, WFI will collect detailed images from very large regions of the sky simultaneously and accumulate data on the light from approximately 1 billion galaxies over the course of the mission.

Jeffrey Walter Crook, deputy to the senior science lead for the Roman Space Telescope project at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, said Roman would be comparable to Hubble in sensitivity and angular resolution. Crook said its field of view would be approximately 100 times larger and that wide-field surveys could be carried out about 1,000 times faster than with Hubble.

The mission will investigate changes in dark energy

Roman’s primary objectives include studying dark energy, which is thought to be responsible for the universe’s accelerating expansion. Observations of millions of galaxies and supernovae will be used to investigate the history of the universe’s expansion and the formation of its large-scale structure.

Scientists aim to reach more precise conclusions through these observations about whether dark energy remains constant over time. Dark matter, meanwhile, is thought to be distributed in vast filaments and sheets across the regions between galaxy clusters.

Dark matter is associated with the gravitational effect that enables matter to form dense and irregular structures. Dark energy is thought to drive matter apart. Roman’s observations at different scales will contribute to the study of how these two components have influenced the formation and evolution of the universe.

Thousands of exoplanets will be sought through microlensing

The exoplanet program will use the gravitational microlensing method. This technique could enable the detection of planets orbiting closer to their stars than Venus orbits the Sun, as well as planets that are not bound to any star and wander through interstellar space.

More than 1,000 new exoplanets are expected to be discovered during the mission within a broad sample that will also include small planets. The data will help scientists understand the masses of planets in exoplanetary systems and the distribution of their distances from their stars.

Data on the light from approximately 1 billion galaxies collected by WFI will be used to study galaxies, stars and other cosmic objects. The dataset will also help identify new targets for detailed observations in the future.

The coronagraph will observe faint planets

Roman will operate with two scientific instruments. While the Wide Field Instrument will conduct large-scale sky surveys, the second instrument, the coronagraph, will serve as an experimental technology system designed to block the light of bright stars.

The coronagraph is intended to enable the direct observation of fainter planets near these stars. The techniques developed with this instrument are planned for use in the future to investigate the atmospheres of potentially habitable planets.

It will complement Hubble and James Webb

Roman will not replace the Hubble or James Webb Space Telescope; it will complement their work with wide-field surveys. Hubble conducts highly detailed observations at ultraviolet, visible and near-infrared wavelengths. James Webb, with its 6.5-meter mirror, focuses on far-infrared observations, early galaxies and star formation.

Roman’s main advantage will be its ability to survey broad regions of the sky rapidly, rather than the diameter of its mirror. Hubble and James Webb can observe across broader ranges of wavelengths and have more powerful spectrographs.

Crook said the three telescopes were designed for different scientific purposes and that which observatory is used for a particular study depends on the nature of the research. He said rare objects identified in Roman’s wide-field surveys could later be examined in detail by Hubble and James Webb.

Black holes and neutron stars will be sought in the early years

Scientists expect Roman to provide initial findings in its early years on the overall appearance of systems with planets both within and outside the habitable zone. The gravitational microlensing method is also expected to enable the first detections of isolated black holes and neutron stars in the Milky Way.

The mission could provide findings on the distribution of different stellar populations in the Milky Way and neighboring galaxies. These findings are expected to contribute to studies of how those galaxies formed and evolved over time. Much of the cosmology and exoplanet research, however, is expected to emerge after years of analysis of the data collected throughout the mission.

Roman data will be made publicly available

Roman’s data are planned to be made publicly available. The project will also provide researchers and educators with a computing environment for examining telescope data, along with a basic toolkit.

Most of the observing time will be devoted to surveys targeting specific scientific objectives. The programs are planned to be designed so that the resulting data can be used in a wide range of astrophysical research.

The global scientific community will be able to combine Roman’s data with data from other research facilities to conduct different studies. Computing support is expected to reduce the technical barriers that educational institutions and educators face when accessing the data and conducting research.

The telescope is named after Nancy Grace Roman, NASA’s first chief astronomer. Roman played an important role in the development of the space observatory program and paved the way for the work that led to Hubble.