NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope's ‘Spy Mirror’ Could Transform How We Map The Universe
--
https://www.discovermagazine.com/nasa-s-nancy-grace-roman-space-telescope-s-spy-mirror-could-transform-how-we-map-the-universe-49239 <-- shared technical article
--
https://www.mos.org/article/ready-roman-nancy-grace-roman-space-telescope <-- shared technical article
--
https://www.space.com/space-exploration/the-nancy-grace-roman-space-telescope-nasas-next-great-observatory-is-finally-complete <-- shared technical article
--
https://youtu.be/TcjuucVEB5g?si=I93BjarghNcYKKqj <-- shared NASA Goddard technical overview video
--
https://youtu.be/lBAuc057pVA?si=IghhCWC915FO3y3C <-- shared media video
--
“… Roman is set to launch on August 30, 2026, and will help us gain a wider view of the universe and collect data faster than its predecessors, such as the Hubble Space Telescope. The telescope will do so thanks to the incredible equipment and instruments built into it.
These instruments include the primary mirror, which was gifted to NASA by a U.S. intelligence agency, the Wide Field Instrument, and an advanced coronograph. Altogether, these instruments could help us map out more of the universe than we ever imagined.
“It is an incredible feat of precision engineering. It's quite possibly the most complex scientific instrument that NASA has ever built,” Dominic Benford, …program scientist for the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope…”
--
“Named after NASA’s first chief astronomer, the ‘mother of the Hubble Space Telescope,’ the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will have a field of view at least 100 times larger than Hubble's, potentially measuring light from a billion galaxies in its lifetime. This observatory will also be able to block starlight to directly see exoplanets and planet-forming disks, complete a statistical census of planetary systems in our galaxy, and settle essential questions in the areas of dark energy, exoplanets, and infrared astrophysics…”
--
The Roman Space Telescope is engineered to investigate the biggest mysteries in astrophysics:
• Dark Energy & Dark Matter: By surveying billions of galaxies and mapping their distribution, Roman will explore why the universe's expansion is accelerating and trace cosmic history.
• Exoplanets: It will utilize gravitational microlensing to complete a statistical census of planetary systems in our galaxy, aiming to find thousands of exoplanets, including elusive rogue planets.
• Infrared Astrophysics: The telescope's deep, crisp infrared vision will help astronomers measure light from up to a billion galaxies over its lifetime.
#coronograph #astronomy #mapping #exoplanets #universe #telescope #spacetelescope #darkenergy #darkmatter #NancyGrace #NASA #Roman #astrophysics #cosmic #infrared #launch #WideFieldInstrument #instumentation #exploration extraterrestrial observatory #space #remotesensing #galacticbulge #spatialanalysis #spatiotemporal #supernova
@nasa @nasa Goddard @Discover Magazine

‘Fireworks’ spotted in stellar explosion 15 million light-years away

https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://www.popsci.com/science/galaxy-m83-fireworks-supernova/

Put your name aboard NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope

https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://www.popsci.com/science/put-your-name-aboard-nasas-nancy-grace-roman-space-telescope/

JWST spots dormant black hole 10 billion light-years from Earth

https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://www.popsci.com/science/distant-dormant-black-hole-jwst/

Journey to the Center of the Virgo Cluster https://www.nasa.gov/image-detail/hubble-m88-potm2605a/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon #NASA #Hubble #SpaceTelescope #Galaxy #Messier88

Hubble Spies Faint Irregular Galaxy https://www.nasa.gov/image-detail/eso490-017-1-flat-final-crop/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon #Hubble #NASA #SpaceTelescope #Astronomy #Galaxies

This is my attempt at processing James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) data of Sh 2-305. It is an emission nebula usually visible in red (H II emission), but it is displayed here in false-color infrared. Blue areas emit higher-energy photons than red regions. This area is a stellar nursery where gas and dust remnants from supernovae or collisions form new stars. The three versions show the nebula only, with galaxies only, and with everything else.

A great deal of work went into creating a clean nebula image with as few artifacts as possible. After data extraction and initial stretching with #Siril, the single monochrome filter images were combined, processed, and cropped in #GIMP. The combined image was then run through #StarNet++ to remove most of the stars. Since StarNet++ does not work well with JWST data, it leaves artifacts for every star, especially the brighter ones, whose long spikes typical of JWST overlay large parts of the image. I therefore had to remove each star artifact manually using the clone and healing tools in GIMP. This took tens of hours to complete. #GMIC additionally helped reduce banding. As such, this is an artistic interpretation by me and is not scientifically accurate. The full resolution versions can be downloaded from https://www.picturavis.com/index?/tags/1204-jwst (these JWST images are crazily detailed).

The person responsible for this JWST proposal is Mark McCaughrean of the Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie in Heidelberg. He also shared an initial version of the uncropped processed image: https://www.flickr.com/photos/markmccaughrean/55209728128/

Attribution: NASA/ESA/CSA
Telescope: JWST/NIRCam
Proposal ID: 4547
Observation description: The stellar & sub-stellar initial mass function in Sharpless 305: imaging
Release date: 02.04.2026
Filters (mapping): F140M (blue), F150W+162M (light blue), F182M (blue-green), F212N (green), F300M (light green), F335M (yellow), F360M (orange), F444W (red)

#Sharpless305 #Sh2305 #JWST #JamesWebb #NIRCam #Nebula #SpaceTelescope #astrophotography #DeepSky #DigiKam

youtube.com/watch?v=c0yt... #Xuntian #spaceTelescope

China's New Telescope Just Out...