NASA Ames’ Contributions to Roman’s Mission

NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, scheduled for launch on August 30, will investigate key cosmic mysteries such as dark energy, dark matter, exoplanets, and galaxy formation. Researchers at NASA’s Ames Research Center, located in California’s Silicon Valley, are making vital contributions to the mission. The center’s facilities, expertise, and innovations will enhance Roman’s scientific capabilities, particularly through the development of advanced software to refine the telescope’s images.

The Wide Field Instrument aboard Roman will produce expansive, high-resolution pictures of the universe in optical and near-infrared light, enabling astronomers to uncover profound cosmic secrets. However, this telescope’s camera must contend with various sources of glare that can degrade image quality and impede the study of certain cosmic structures.

Innovative software, named ROSALIA, will address these issues. Developed by a team at NASA Ames, in collaboration with experts from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center and IPAC/Caltech, ROSALIA predicts and eliminates unwanted light from Roman’s captured images.

Glare, a form of stray light, arises when photons scatter inside the telescope’s optical system, creating deceptive image artifacts that resemble real planets or nebulae. Another major contributor to image distortion is zodiacal light, which originates from the scattering of sunlight by interplanetary dust particles in our solar system.

ROSALIA will also strip away background contamination, including zodiacal and stray light from images, exposing faint, diffuse emissions at galaxy edges where critical cosmic evolutionary histories are hidden.

By utilizing ROSALIA to optimize observational plans and reduce contamination, astronomers will be better equipped to characterize cosmic structures and unravel the deepest mysteries of the universe.