With the combined collaboration between the NASA Goddard and NASA JPL teams, they were recently able to successfully integrate the Coronagraph into the Roman Space Telescope. It was placed into the Roman’s instrument carrier which will carry the mission's main instruments, this whole carrier will be placed into a larger spacecraft at a later date. The instrument carrier will hold not only the Coronagraph but also the Roman’s wide field instrument. With an expected launch date to be sometime in May of 2027. There are big hopes for this telescope and its mission.
The Roman Space Telescope when launched will have a field of view 100 times larger than that of the Hubble telescope. This new telescope's main mission is using the Coronagraph to explore and picture the mysteries surrounding dark energy, exoplanets, and infrared astrophysics. This new data will serve as a stepping stone for future missions such as NASA’s proposed Habitable Worlds Observatory, which will be the first telescope designed to search for signs of life on other planets. In order to know if this will be possible scientists first need the data obtained from Roman’s Space telescope so they can know how the instruments will work to be able to make fixes if needed for future missions. The key instrument (Coronagraph) is “designed to make direct observation of exoplanets, or planets outside of our solar system, by using a complex suite of masks and active mirrors to obscure the glare of the planets’ host stars, making the planets visible.” (Kazmierczak & NASA, 2024).
This new telescope provides hope for future missions so the scientists hope to continue the diligent work on finishing the integration process of the rest of the instruments and hopefully be able to launch in May of 2027.References
Kazmierczak, J., & NASA. (2024, October 28). NASA Successfully Integrates Coronagraph for Roman Space Telescope. NASA. https://www.nasa.gov/missions/roman-space-telescope/nasa-successfully-integrates-coronagraph-for-roman-space-telescope/
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