Roman Stories
NASA’s Roman Space Telescope’s ‘Eyes’ Pass First Vision Test
Engineers at L3Harris Technologies in Rochester, New York, have combined all 10 mirrors for NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope. Preliminary tests show the newly aligned optics, collectively called the IOA (Imaging Optics Assembly), will direct light into Roman’s science…
How NASA’s Roman Telescope Will Measure Ages of Stars
Guessing your age might be a popular carnival game, but for astronomers it’s a real challenge to determine the ages of stars. Once a star like our Sun has settled into steady nuclear fusion, or the mature phase of its…
NASA’s Roman Team Selects Survey to Map Our Galaxy’s Far Side
NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope team has announced plans for an unprecedented survey of the plane of our Milky Way galaxy. It will peer deeper into this region than any other survey, mapping more of our galaxy’s stars than…
NASA’s Roman to Use Rare Events to Calculate Expansion Rate of Universe
Astronomers investigating one of the most pressing mysteries of the cosmos – the rate at which the universe is expanding – are readying themselves to study this puzzle in a new way using NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope. Once…
What is Dark Energy? Inside our accelerating, expanding Universe
Some 13.8 billion years ago, the universe began with a rapid expansion we call the big bang. After this initial expansion, which lasted a fraction of a second, gravity started to slow the universe down. But the cosmos wouldn’t stay…
NASA Puts Next-Gen Exoplanet-Imaging Technology to the Test
A cutting-edge tool to view planets outside our solar system has passed two key tests ahead of its launch as part of the agency’s Roman Space Telescope by 2027. The Coronagraph Instrument on NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will…
NASA’s Roman to Search for Signs of Dark Matter Clumps
Some of the finest, smallest details in the universe – the gaps between elongated groups of stars – may soon help astronomers reveal dark matter in greater detail than ever before. After NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope launches, by May 2027, researchers will…
Joshua Schlieder: Feet on the Ground, Head in the Stars
Goddard astrophysicist Dr. Joshua Schlieder supports NASA’s Roman Space Telescope and Swift Observatory with creativity, community, and curiosity.
Meet the Infrared Telescopes That Paved the Way for NASA’s Webb
The Webb telescope has opened a new window onto the universe, but it builds on missions going back 40 years, including Spitzer and the Infrared Astronomical Satellite. On Dec. 25, NASA will celebrate the two-year launch anniversary of the James…
Seeing and Believing: 15 Years of Exoplanet Images
Fifteen years ago, astronomers delivered what is now an iconic direct image of an exoplanet, Beta Pictoris b.