NASA Roman’s Planet Imager Has Powered On
NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope team has successfully activated the mission’s Coronagraph Instrument, which will block starlight to view planets and dusty disks around nearby stars. Now the instrument will undergo a monthslong series of calibrations and tests prior to beginning full science operations. The coronagraph power-on began at 7:27 a.m. EDT and completed […] The post NASA…
NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope team has successfully powered on the mission’s Coronagraph Instrument, a system designed to block starlight and reveal planets and dusty disks surrounding nearby stars. Following the power-on, scheduled for 7:27 a.m. EDT on September 1, the instrument will undergo a month-long series of calibrations and tests before initiating full scientific operations.
The Coronagraph Instrument employs a sophisticated array of optics, masks, self-flexing mirrors, and sensors to achieve the most advanced direct imaging of planets outside our solar system in space history. By eliminating the overwhelming starlight, scientists will be able to observe the faint reflected light from surrounding planets, enabling them to photograph worlds and dusty disks in visible light.
This will provide crucial insights into giant planets that are older, colder, and closer to their stars than the hot, young super-Jupiters primarily observed through direct imaging thus far. The Roman Coronagraph team plans to perform pre-planned observations over a three-month period, distributed throughout the telescope’s first year-and-a-half of operations.
In addition to direct imaging, the Roman Space Telescope will also detect planets using microlensing and transit methods.
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