Roman Stories

NASA’s Tally of Planets Outside Our Solar System Reaches 6,000

The milestone highlights the accelerating rate of discoveries, just over three decades since the first exoplanets were found. The official number of exoplanets — planets outside our solar system — tracked by NASA has reached 6,000. Confirmed planets are added…

How NASA’s Roman Mission Will Unveil Our Home Galaxy Using Cosmic Dust

NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will help scientists better understand our Milky Way galaxy’s less sparkly components — gas and dust strewn between stars, known as the interstellar medium. One of Roman’s major observing programs, called the Galactic Plane…

Ami Choi: Unraveling the Invisible Universe 

Research Astrophysicist and Roman’s Deputy Wide Field Instrument Scientist – Goddard Space Flight Center From a young age, Ami Choi — now a research astrophysicist at NASA — was drawn to the vast and mysterious. By the fifth grade, she…

NASA Roman Core Survey Will Trace Cosmic Expansion Over Time

NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will be a discovery machine, thanks to its wide field of view and resulting torrent of data. Scheduled to launch no later than May 2027, with the team working toward launch as early as…

NASA Installs Key ‘Sunblock’ Shield on Roman Space Telescope

Technicians have successfully installed two sunshields onto NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope’s inner segment. Along with the observatory’s Solar Array Sun Shield and Deployable Aperture Cover, the panels (together called the Lower Instrument Sun Shade), will play a critical…

Laine Havens: Melding Science and Storytelling

Science Communication Intern – Goddard Space Flight Center Laine Havens — now a senior at Cornell University and three-time NASA intern — grew up with a deep curiosity about how the universe works and a family that encouraged her to…

One Survey by NASA’s Roman Could Unveil 100,000 Cosmic Explosions

Scientists predict one of the major surveys by NASA’s upcoming Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope may reveal around 100,000 celestial blasts, ranging from exploding stars to feeding black holes. Roman may even find evidence of some of the universe’s first…

NASA’s Roman Space Telescope Team Installs Observatory’s Solar Panels

On June 14 and 16, technicians installed solar panels onto NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, one of the final steps in assembling the observatory. Collectively called the Solar Array Sun Shield, these panels will power and shade the observatory,…

Sophia Roberts: Showcasing the Cosmos

Astrophysics Science Video Producer – Goddard Space Flight Center Growing up in Detroit with a camera in her hand, Sophia Roberts — now an award-winning astrophysics science video producer—never imagined that one day her path would wind through clean rooms,…

NASA’s Roman to Peer Into Cosmic ‘Lenses’ to Better Define Dark Matter

A funky effect Einstein predicted, known as gravitational lensing — when a foreground galaxy magnifies more distant galaxies behind it — will soon become common when NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope begins science operations in 2027 and produces vast…