NASA's Roman Space Telescope Takes First Coronagraph Instrument Observation
On September 22, the Coronagraph Instrument on NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope opened its eyes to cosmic light for the first time. The ultimate purpose of the instrument—which is commanded from Caltech's IPAC , a science and data center for astrophysics and planetary sciences—is to demonstrate technology that can block starlight, providing unprecedented views of the planets and dusty…
NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope's fine-guidance system successfully completed a series of tests between September 15 and 21. On September 22, the mission's Coronagraph Instrument opened its sensors to cosmic light for the very first observation. The Wide Field Instrument's 18 detectors each monitored a guide star, allowing the fine-guidance system to guide the telescope with high precision.
The fine-guidance system sends information about guide stars to the attitude control system, which adjusts the telescope to maintain its position for steady observations. Roman's current stability is equivalent to focusing a laser beam on a U.S. dime from approximately 150 miles away, with the team aiming to improve it to about 230 miles.
Roman's Coronagraph Instrument tested its fine-guidance system with the new technology designed to block starlight and view planets and dusty disks around nearby stars. The Coronagraph Instrument achieved a focused image of a faint star in the Large Magellanic Cloud, confirming its capability to capture detailed images for future observations.
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