What is NASA’s new telescope that promises to change knowledge about the galaxy?

He New project of potThe Nancy Grace Roman space telescope will be launched in May 2027. It was named in honor of an American astronomer who was one of the first female officials of a US space agency.

A group of astronomers described it in a paper benefits using roman to create Comprehensive and accurate mapping of the galaxyWith a depth and breadth never seen before.

result will be a star mapping Phenomenal, more so than all the previous comments combined. “There’s really a wide range of science that we can explore from this type of study star formation and evolution To the dust between the stars and mobility heart of the galaxy”said Katherine Zucker, an astrophysicist at the Harvard & Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

As NASA explained in a press release, the idea to conduct this study arose from the possibility that scientific community Proposing a variety of studies to determine which studies to conduct with the new telescope. The mapping of the galaxy got the highest number of votes. It is one of three major community surveys, which also includes the Time Domain Galactic Bulb Survey and the Time Domain High Latitude Survey.

It is still to be defined amount of area to study and number of filters What to use to map it. Astronomers must find a middle ground between the two, because the possibilities, although broader than ever before, they are not infinite,

“Scientists say it could reveal even more if it covers about 1,000 square degrees (an area of ​​the sky as large as 5,000 full moons) 100 billion cosmic objects (Mainly stars),” the NASA statement said. He further said that “the Astronomers around the world will have the opportunity to use Roman and propose cutting-edge research that will allow the astronomical community to harness the full potential of Roman’s capabilities to advance extraordinary science.

Roberta Paladini Thanks to the capabilities of this telescope, explains the project’s lead author, senior research scientist at Caltech/IPAC in Pasadena, California, Stellar census will take about a month, Whereas with current telescopes, Hubble and James Webbthe same process will happen decade,

Galaxy It is a spiral galaxy, with a black hole at its center. sagittarius a*, It has a “bar” of bright wires crossing it from one side to the other and, at both ends, raised arms that give it a spiral appearance.

All of these features were observed by other observatories, such as NASA’s retired Spitzer Space Telescope, but boundaries, Because of this, Zucker explained that “we have a lot of incomplete What does the other side of that galaxy look like? galactic center, But astronomers are sure the Romans will be able to capture it inconspicuous details by other telescopes.

The data that will be processed by Roman also includes the study of personal starsand subsequent construction star list, Similar missions have been conducted earlier also like ESA Gaia (European Space Agency), in which approximately 1 billion stars were mapped in 3D 10,000 light yearsBut even the new telescope will be able to see ten times ahead, “Roman could map up to 100 billion stars 100,000 light years or more away (Extending to the farthest edge of our galaxy and beyond),” according to NASA.

Getting a complete view of the Milky Way is difficult for several reasons. one of them is yours size, It occupies a lot of space in the sky and remains full cosmic dust Which obstructs the light of the stars.

The new Roman telescope, whose development continues, may overcome these difficulties and fulfill its mission technology Containing. NASA commented that the project would have an impressive arsenal of capabilities: “a larger field of view, sharper resolution, and the ability to look through the dust Make it the ideal tool for studying the galaxy. And observing stars in different wavelengths of light, optical and infrared, will help astronomers learn things star temperature, “That information unlocks a tremendous amount of data, from the star’s evolutionary stage and composition to its brightness and size.”

This will be possible to some extent thanks to the performance of coronagraph technology. it coronagraph “A system of masks, prisms, detectors and even self-flexing mirrors is designed to block the glare of distant stars and reveal the planets orbiting around them, to demonstrate “That direct imaging technologies can work even better in space than with terrestrial telescopes.” Then, if your test runs during First 18 months of mission D Roman is successful, this tool can be delivered To become part of the entire scientific community future projects,

With this space telescope we will be able to discover distant regions of the galaxyPlus get more accurate data than ever before star system,