May 6, 2021
NASA’s Roman space telescope mission – launching sometime in the mid-2020s – is expected to find at least 100,000 new exoplanets orbiting other stars, say astronomers.
Artist’s concept of an exoplanet transiting in front of its star. The upcoming Roman space telescope mission is expected to find at least 100,000 new such transiting worlds. Image via ESA.
Since the 1990s, astronomers have discovered more than 4,000 exoplanets – planets outside our solar system, orbiting other stars. NASA’s upcoming Roman Space Telescope – named for American astronomer Nancy Grace Roman – is one of the next generation of space telescopes that will play a big part in discovering more new worlds. In fact, NASA is expecting Roman, which is scheduled to launch in the mid-2020s, to discover upwards of 100,000 exoplanets, the space agency announced on March 31, 2021.
Artwork showing the Nancy Roman Space Telescope, formerly the Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope. Credit: NASA
This telescope is in the early stages now, with engineering models being built to test out the design. Scheduled for launch in the mid-2020s (which seems aspirational, but shouldn t be too long after that) and costing about $4 billion (including the first five years of mission costs), it s based on what NASA calls legacy hardware and concepts, ideas and tech developed for previous missions that have been shown to work.
Roman is very similar to the Hubble Space Telescope: It will sport a 2.4-meter primary mirror, the same size as Hubble s. But it will have a far, far wider field of view, meaning it will see larger chunks of the sky. How much bigger? In a single image it will see
Ball Aerospace Completes Critical Design Review of Roman Space Telescope Instrument
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BROOMFIELD, Colo., March 9, 2021 /PRNewswire/ Ball Aerospace, partnered with NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, successfully completed the critical design review of the Wide Field Instrument (WFI), which will be the primary science instrument on NASA s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, formerly known as the Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST).
Credit: NASA. Artist rendering of NASA s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope. Now that we have passed this critical milestone, we will continue to work hand-in-hand with NASA as we move from the design phase and into building and integrating the instrument, said Dr. Makenzie Lystrup, vice president and general manager, Civil Space, Ball Aerospace. It s always exciting to get to the hardware build, and particularly in this case as WFI is the central science instrument on Roman.
By: Office of Rep. Don Beyer
February 17, 2021
Late last week, Democrats on the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology elected Rep. Don Beyer (D-VA) to serve as Chair of the Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics for the 117th Congress.
“I am humbled and honored to have been selected as the Chairman for the Space and Aeronautics Subcommittee,” said Beyer. “Over the last year, we witnessed some of the most impactful moments for U.S. space exploration in decades. As someone who has long supported NASA’s important work on earth sciences, I am also excited to advance a climate-driven agenda, working hand in hand with NASA’s new climate advisor and advancing research into cleaner modes of flight. I am eager to boldly go forward with this important work with my colleagues in the 117th Congress for an ambitious space and aeronautics agenda.”
The Truth About The Mother Of The Hubble Telescope
By Daniel Leonard/Dec. 23, 2020 10:10 am EDT/Updated: March 17, 2021 11:40 pm EDT
You re no doubt familiar with the Hubble Space Telescope. According to NASA, the Hubble telescope was first launched in 1990, and has enabled humanity to acquire some of our most high-precision images of outer space. The Hubble is huge 43.5 feet long to be precise, or about the size of a school bus. Since 1990, the Hubble has made over 1.3 million observations and has been referenced in over 15,000 published papers, making it one of the most productive scientific instruments ever built.
These are awesome statistics, but probably not super surprising; the Hubble telescope is widely admired and celebrated. But what do you know about the history of the Hubble s creation? Unless you re a true space nerd, there s a good chance you ve never even heard of Nancy Grace Roman the Mother of the Hubble telescope.