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Roman Lifts Off: 100,000 Exoplanets, Dark Energy & the Coronagraph Gamble
Audio is available on Spreaker — see link below.
The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope launches tomorrow on a Falcon Heavy — promising 100,000 new exoplanets, a dark energy test, and a coronagraph that could shape the next generation of observatories. Everything you need to know before liftoff, in one clear briefing.
Audio is available on Spreaker — see link below.
The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope launches tomorrow morning. Liftoff is set for seven twenty-six a.m.
Here's what makes Roman different from every telescope that came before it. Hubble stares deep and narrow.
The headline science target is exoplanets. Right now, we know of around six thousand three hundred worlds beyond our solar system.
The part of this mission that carries the most uncertainty is also the most consequential if it works. Roman carries a coronagraph instrument with deformable mirrors containing over three thousand two hundred individual actuators.
Roman's wide-field survey also has a direct target in fundamental physics. Dark energy, the force accelerating the universe's expansion, is currently modeled as a cosmological constant.
One near-term watchpoint is how quickly Roman and James Webb begin operating as a coordinated system. Roman identifies targets at scale.
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