NASA’s new space telescope will reveal the ‘dark universe’

NASA has completed its next task space The observatory was created to create sharp, panoramic maps of universe Revealing how the most mysterious, invisible substances and distant worlds shape the universe.

Nearly a quarter century after the Hubble Telescope reshaped astronomy, and a few years into the era of James Webb Space TelescopeNASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope Will join them not as a replacement, but as a big-image partner. Where Hubble and Webb zoom in for close-ups, Roman will capture Hubble-like detail over areas nearly 100 times larger, turning individual snapshots into sweeping surveys that show the scaffolding of the universe.

At NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, engineers are completing prelaunch tests on the state-of-the-art telescope. Next, the observatory will travel 900 miles to Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, where teams will prepare it for launch.

At a press conference on Tuesday, April 21, NASA managers said that could happen as early as this September, about eight months ahead of schedule. Once in space, Roman will go into a stable orbit near the same area, about 1 million miles from Earth. where the web revolves around the sunand begin a years-long campaign of deep space imaging.

“We didn’t want to wait to launch Nancy Grace Roman. We’re eight months ahead of schedule,” said NASA Associate Administrator for Science Nikki Fox. “Everyone felt the urgency of it. Everyone was moving quickly toward it.”

Named after Nancy Grace Roman, who became the agency’s first head of astronomy and one of its earliest female executives, the telescope reflects its legacy of opening new windows on the universe from above Earth’s atmosphere. Surname “Hubble’s mother,” Roman helped lay the groundwork for an entire fleet of space telescopes in the 1960s.

A wide shot of the dark universe

At the heart of the mission is Roman’s eight-foot-wide mirror, similar in size to Hubble, paired with a powerful camera that, like Webb, sees in infrared light. The field of view of that camera is Roman’s superpower. In a single shot, it can image vast areas of the sky that Hubble simply cannot match.

Because a space telescope can only see a single slice of the sky at a time, it has to take many different “pointings” – individual shots aimed at different locations – and stitch them together into a mosaic.

In 2023, astrophysicist and Roman’s Wide Field Camera scientist Amy Choi compared the differences between Hubble and the new telescope. to take photos Andromeda GalaxyHubble must take 400 small images and stitch them together. He said, for Roman’s camera, he should only get two points.

Scientists need this wide, sharp vision to study the so-called “dark universe.” Ordinary matter – the stuff that makes up stars, planets and even people – makes up about 5 percent of the universe. a big part of it dark matter and dark energy, which do not emit light but leave clues about where they have affected the expansion of space and the arrangement of galaxies.

mashable light speed

“Current observations indicate that our Standard Model of the Universe is wrong,” said senior project scientist Julie McHenry, referring to cosmologists’ best prescription for the universe. “Roman will be able to confirm these and lead us on the path to understanding what is right.”

Roman will trace those clues in several ways simultaneously. By mapping the positions and sizes of millions of galaxies, it will show how structures have evolved from the early universe to today. Subtle distortions in the shapes of galaxies will reveal how clumps of invisible space material bend their light our way, exposing hidden dark matter. Additionally, Roman will discover and track large numbers of a special type of exploded star, known as Type Ia supernova; Their predicted brightness helps astronomers measure how rapidly space has expanded over time.

Overall, these measurements will allow scientists to test competing ideas about dark matter, dark energy, and even the laws of gravity with greater precision than ever before. NASA mission leaders say other observatories can make similar measurements, but none combine Roman’s sharpness and sky coverage in the infrared, which allows it to see more distant and dust-covered galaxies.

A new census of distant exoplanets

Roman’s wide-field power also makes him efficient exoplanet Hunt. Previous missions, such as Kepler and TESS, found most planets close to their stars, where they receded. crossing dim starlight In a regular rhythm. Roman will focus on a different region of planetary systems: the cooler, outer regions, where worlds similar to Jupiter and Saturn reside. it can also be found wandering planets Which are not tied to the stars.

To do this, ROMAN will repeatedly observe dense star fields toward the center of our galaxy. As a foreground star passes in front of a more distant star, its gravity will briefly amplify the light of the background star. If the foreground star moves planets, they can produce small, noticeable blips in the brightness. This technique is called microlensingWorks best in exactly the kind of crowded, vulnerable, and remote areas the Romans are expected to occupy.

During its mission, Roman will attempt to record thousands of these microlensing events, revealing planets with distances and masses that have been missed by other surveys. With that weight, astronomers will compare Architecture of our solar system along with many others and decide whether having inner rocky worlds and outer giant planets is the status quo or something more rare.

Roman will also test an advanced coronagraph – A system of masks and mirrors that block the brightness of the star so that the telescope can attempt to see the faint glow of the planets around it. On Roman, it’s more a technology test than an everyday science instrument, but if it works, it will set the stage for a future observatory whose main goal is to directly image Earth-like worlds around Sun-like stars.

“Astronomers today can see planets with coronagraph instruments that are perhaps millions of times fainter than their stars,” NASA Roman coronagraph scientist Vanessa Bailey told Mashable. “What we are doing with the Roman Coronagraph will hopefully reduce this by 10 million to 100 million times in the best case, maybe even a little more.”

catching the universe in motion

Roman is also designed to study how the sky changes, creating a veritable library of “before” and “after” shots.

One of its major surveys will repeatedly scan high-latitude regions of the sky, away from the plane of the Milky Way. Returning to the same areas every few days, Roman will capture the supernovae as they ignite and fade away, watch black holes shine As they feed on nearby material, they trigger other short-lived, dramatic events in the distant universe. Its infrared vision will reveal explosions and flares that dust clouds hide from visible-light telescopes.

Another major program will look at the galaxy’s central bulge. There, Roman will track how the brightness of millions of stars increases and decreases on time scales ranging from minutes to months. Those records will not only empower microlensing planet searches but also uncover other phenomena neutron stars And black hole.

Because Roman would cover such large areas with fine detail, its images would also become a long-lasting reference tool. When other telescopes later see something strange – a burst of high-energy radiationFor example, or an unusual variable star – Astronomers will be able to pull up previous images of Roman and see what was there before the rapture.

NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said, “The pictures it takes will be so large that there is no screen big enough to show them.” “Roman Earth will give a new atlas of the universe. I think it’s worth stopping for a moment to think about how incredible it really is.”