Roman Telescope Will Do in Months What Would Take Hubble a Lifetime:
NASA is still a few years away from launching the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, but a new study explores what this groundbreaking space observatory will be able to do. Unlike the Hubble and James Webb space telescopes, which zero in on small patches of the sky, the Roman Telescope will be designed to take a wider view of the cosmos. According to the researchers, it would take Hubble decades to see what Roman will be able to see in a few months.
The Roman Telescope passed a critical design review in 2021 and is currently under construction at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center with the aim of launching it aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket in 2027. When complete, it will have two instruments: a coronagraph for visualizing exoplanets and a wide-field camera with a 300.8-megapixel resolution. It's the latter that will allow the Roman Telescope, which will use a 2.4-meter mirror similar to Hubble, to perform both wide and deep sky surveys.
[...] "Roman will take around 100,000 pictures every year," said Jeffrey Kruk, a research astrophysicist at Goddard. "Given Roman's larger field of view, it would take longer than our lifetimes even for powerful telescopes like Hubble or Webb to cover as much sky." Specifically, the study says it would take Hubble 85 years to do what Roman will do in 63 days. However, Roman won't be ideal for precision observations of specific objects. Webb and Hubble will still be vital for that kind of work, but Roman can help nail down observational targets that could solve long-standing mysteries about galactic evolution.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Thursday March 09, @03:01PM (2 children)
With the advent of "cheap" space launches, here's hoping we get more cool space things to come. Astronomers like to bellyache about all the Satellites. How about, they quit their bellyaching and embrace the future. A future where they can have access and maybe even help get more awesome Space Telescopes launched. There are lots of issues with ground based Telescopes, not the least of which is cloud cover. Have yourself a sweet telescope in LEO or a bit farther out and all of a sudden, it doesn't matter what the weather is like where you're at.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 09, @04:56PM (1 child)
Is pointing out the fact that satellites are also causing problems for telescopes that were put into orbit (Hubble) also considered bellyaching?
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Thursday March 09, @06:30PM
Hubble In Trouble As Satellite Trails Start Affecting It Too [soylentnews.org]
And not long after your comment we released this story.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 10, @09:14AM
Yeah, but besides taking 100,000 pictures a year, what has the Roman ever done for us?
(Score: 2) by driverless on Friday March 10, @11:34AM
Holy shit, this leaves the Antikythera mechanism for dead!