Earlier this morning, the NASA Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope (RST) was successfully launched into space using a SpaceX Falcon heavy rocket from KSC Florida.
Stationed around the Sun-Earth L2 point, RST will investigate dark energy and dark matter, conduct a statistical census of planetary systems, directly image exoplanets and enable a broad range of additional astrophysics research.
The Trajectory
Here is the planned trajectory of the Roman Space Telescope (RST) over the next 7 months, as RST travels to the Sun-Earth L2 Lagrange point 1.5 million km away and enters a 6-month Halo orbit around L2. RST will be ready for science after about 3 months.
Other telescopes such as JWST, Euclid and Gaia are also in orbit around the L2 point.
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nancy_Grace_Roman_Space_TelescopePhoenix7777
RST Overview
Here is a primer on the Roman Space Telescope from NASA Goddard –
The Coronagraph
One of the two main instruments aboard the Roman Space Telescope is its state-of-the-art Coronagraph. It will help image exoplanets by blocking out the light from its stars, not with mechanical disks, but a system of masks, prisms, detectors and deformable mirrors.
This technology-demonstrator will showcase the first use of Adaptive Optics and “active wavefront control” in space, paving the way for future missions such as the Habitable Worlds Observatory.
Here is a schematic of the complex RST Coronagraph and a diagram of its optical subsystem. DM1 and DM2 are the two deformable mirrors, with 48×48 actuators each.
https://roman.ipac.caltech.edu/docs/Roman-CGI-Reference-Info-January2025.pdfNASA/JPL
Wide Field Instrument
The primary instrument on the Roman Space Telescope is the Wide Field Instrument (WFI).
It contains a 300-megapixel visible-to-NIR imaging camera and slitless spectrometer. It provides multiband imaging and spectroscopy from the visible to near-infrared (0.48 to 2.30 μm) wavelengths.
WFI produces images that match the resolution of the Hubble Space Telescope NIR capabilities, but with a field of view 200x larger.
The WFI will be used to study the nature of dark energy and dark matter, search for exoplanets and for General Astrophysics Surveys.
Below is a pic of the detector array and an illustration of its its wide field of view. https://roman-docs.stsci.edu/roman-instruments/the-wide-field-instrument
NASA
Nancy Grace Roman
Nancy Grace Roman (May 16, 1925 – December 25, 2018) was an American astronomer who made important contributions to stellar classification and stellar motions. The first female executive at NASA, Roman served as NASA’s first Chief of Astronomy throughout the 1960s and 1970s, establishing her as one of the “visionary founders of the US civilian space program”.
Roman created NASA’s space astronomy program and is known to many as the “Mother of Hubble” for her foundational role in planning the Hubble Space Telescope.
Throughout her career, Roman was an active public speaker and educator, and an advocate for women in the sciences. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nancy_Grace_Roman
https://www.flickr.com/photos/hubble_esa/44477663304/NASA
Epilogue
Here’s a toast to more science and more discoveries about the Universe and our place in it. Somewhere along this journey, hopefully we will find a way to save Earth and ourselves.
Resources
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nancy_Grace_Roman_Space_Telescope
https://roman.ipac.caltech.edu/
https://www.youtube.com/@NASAGoddard/search
https://science.nasa.gov/mission/roman-space-telescope/coronagraph/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/nasaroman/
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