NASA has big plans for another space-based telescope called the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope. Roman will conduct a census of exoplanets as well as learn about dark energy and other topics when he launches in 2027. NASA has given more information about the planets that Roman could find, including the possibility that it could take the first image of a Jupiter-like world.
Roman will be armed with a coronagraph instrument which is designed to block out light from very bright objects like stars to allow observation of the planets around them. Most exoplanets are detected by looking at the star they are in. Being able to image an exoplanet directly can give more information.
Rob Zellem, an astronomer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory who is working on Roman, said in a statement that they will be able to image worlds in visible light.
There are more possibilities in the type of planets that could be discovered. Most methods used to detect exoplanets find large, young planets which glow brightly, and are usually located far from their host star. Current methods make it easier to spot these factors. Roman's coronagraph could spot rocky, Earth-sized planets in the vicinity of sun-like stars. It could see planets in the visible light wavelength as opposed to the IR wavelength used now.
To image Earth-like planets, we will need 10,000 times better performance than today's instruments provide, according to an astronomer at JPL.
All Rights Reserved © 2024
