About Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope:
- The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope or Roman Space Telescope (RST) is a NASA deep space infrared observatory.
- Though originally referred to as the Wide Field Infrared Space Telescope (WFIRST), NASA renamed the mission in 2020 after Nancy Grace Roman, NASA's first chief astronomer.
- Objective: RST will help answer essential astrophysics questions about dark energy, dark matter, exoplanets, and infrared astrophysics.
- It is set to launch around 2026 or 2027.
- The mission is projected to last for five years.
- RST will be situated at Lagrange point 2, a stable gravitational point between Earth and the sun located around 1 million miles (1.5 million kilometers) from our planet.
- Features of the Mission:
- The primary mirror of the RST has a diameter of 2.4 meters, the same size as the mirror of the Hubble Space Telescope.
- It will have a field of view that is 100 times greater than the Hubble infrared instrument, capturing more of the sky with less observing time.
- Roman’s gigantic field of view will enable the mission to create infrared images that are around 200 times larger than the Hubble Space Telescope.
- It has two other instruments: the Wide Field Instrument and the Coronagraph Instrument.
- The Wide Field Instrument performs microlensing surveys to find exoplanets, and the Coronograph Instrument performs high-contrast imaging and spectroscopy of nearby exoplanets.
Key facts about the Hubble telescope:
- It is NASA’s large, space-based observatory which has revolutionized astronomy since its launch in 1990.
- Hubble’s domain extends from the ultraviolet through the visible (which our eyes see) and into the near-infrared.
- It is larger than a school bus in size, has a 7.9 feet mirror, and captures stunning images of deep space, playing a major role in helping astronomers understand the universe by observing the most distant stars, galaxies, and planets.
Q1) What is a Space Observatory?
A space observatory is a device used for observing distant heavenly bodies like stars, planets, etc. When such studies are carried out on Earth, a lot of distortions occur which could hinder the process. Thus, these devices are launched in space to avoid turbulence.
Source: Astronomers are on verge of discovering over three crore new galaxies
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