Roman is designed to return about 1.4 terabytes of data daily, with observations becoming publicly available after processing.A collaboration of roughly 900 astronomers is preparing to search those observations for planets, black holes and cosmic explosions.The telescope\u2019s surveys could sharpen measurements of dark energy, but their major discoveries still lie ahead.<\/p>\n
A distant star briefly brightens. A supernova appears in a galaxy. Somewhere else, an unseen object bends passing starlight. NASA\u2019s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope<\/a> is designed to capture such changes across crowded stretches of sky, then make its observations available for others to investigate.<\/p>\n The challenge will be keeping up. Roman is expected to return about 1.4 terabytes of data daily during operations. Jessica Lu, an astronomy associate professor at the University of California, Berkeley<\/a>, and David Weinberg of Ohio State University<\/a> have organized a collaboration of roughly 900 astronomers to prepare.<\/p>\n Their effort connects two ambitions: finding unusual objects in the Milky Way and understanding why the universe\u2019s expansion is accelerating. Both depend on extracting reliable measurements from enormous collections of images.<\/p>\n A schematic of the planned Lazuli Space Observatory, which is being built as part of the Eric and Wendy Schmidt Observatory System. In conjunction with the Roman Telescope, it will help map the history of the universe\u2019s expansion. (CREDIT: Schmidt Sciences) A telescope built for shared discovery<\/p>\n Roman launched August 30, 2026, beginning its journey toward an observing orbit near the Sun\u2013Earth system\u2019s second Lagrange point. This region lies roughly one million miles from Earth. The mission remains in commissioning, with NASA reporting successful checks and improved focusing of its main instrument on October 14.<\/p>\n That distinction matters because the expected torrent of survey observations has not yet become a completed scientific record. Astronomers are preparing analysis tools now so they can identify worthwhile signals once routine observations begin.<\/p>\n \u201cThe telescope takes the data, and within 48 hours it’s available to the entire world,\u201d Lu said. Rapid public access means research groups can pursue different questions using the same observations, rather than each needing a separate telescope pointing.<\/p>\n The Roman Science Collaboration brings together people with expertise in planets, stars, black holes and cosmology. A single exposure can contain objects relevant to several of those fields. Sharing methods and comparing results could help scientists notice discoveries outside their own specialties.<\/p>\n Finding objects that give off little light<\/p>\n Roman\u2019s 2.4-meter mirror feeds a near-infrared camera with 288 million pixels. One major observing program, the Galactic Bulge Time-Domain Survey, will repeatedly examine six fields toward the Milky Way\u2019s crowded center. During its main observing seasons, it will revisit each field about every 12 minutes.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n The survey will search for gravitational microlensing, which occurs when a foreground object\u2019s gravity bends a background star\u2019s light. The resulting magnification can temporarily brighten the star. A planet accompanying the foreground object can leave an additional disturbance in that changing brightness.<\/p>\n This technique can reveal objects that would otherwise be too faint to observe directly. Potential targets include planets orbiting other stars, planets without host stars, brown dwarfs and isolated black holes. Their signatures differ, so identifying an object requires modeling rather than simply counting brightening events.<\/p>\n Finding a planet with Earth\u2019s mass would not establish that it resembles Earth in other respects. Microlensing does not automatically reveal its atmosphere, surface conditions or suitability for life. The survey\u2019s value includes measuring how common planets of different masses and orbital separations are, beyond the systems most accessible to other detection methods.<\/p>\n Lu expects Roman to uncover thousands of planets and potentially hundreds of otherwise dark black holes. These are forecasts, not discoveries already made. The final totals will depend on the objects present, the observing schedule and how effectively scientists distinguish their signals.<\/p>\n Her group has advocated observations that improve the black hole search alongside the planet survey. Longer coverage matters because massive lenses can produce events lasting much longer than typical planetary signals. Measurements of shifting stellar positions can also help constrain a lens\u2019s mass.<\/p>\n A decades-long search for dark energy<\/p>\n Roman also carries an ambition that Berkeley physicist Saul Perlmutter helped develop more than a quarter-century ago. After his team found evidence for accelerating cosmic expansion, he and colleagues proposed a dedicated space observatory in 1999. Their concept was called the Supernova Acceleration Probe, or SNAP.<\/p>\n Saul Perlmutter (right) and Michael Levi in 2008 with a prototype of the proposed Supernova Acceleration Probe (SNAP). Over the next decades, SNAP would evolve into the Nancy Grace Roman Telescope. (CREDIT: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory) <\/p>\n The project changed through several proposed missions and partnerships. The broader Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope, known as WFIRST, eventually became Roman. Its scientific goals expanded to include exoplanets and other investigations alongside dark energy.<\/p>\n The underlying question remains unresolved: what causes cosmic expansion to accelerate? Dark energy is the name given to the component associated with that acceleration. Naming it has not established its physical identity or demonstrated whether its properties remain constant over time.<\/p>\n Type Ia supernovae offer one way to investigate. After correcting for differences in their light curves and colors, astronomers can use them as standardized distance indicators. Comparing those distances with redshift, the stretching of light during cosmic expansion, helps reconstruct how the universe expanded.<\/p>\n Roman\u2019s repeated observations will find supernovae and follow their changing brightness. Its infrared sensitivity will extend those measurements deep into cosmic history. Reliable calibration will be essential, since small errors could mimic or obscure the changes astronomers hope to measure.<\/p>\n Testing hints that dark energy changes<\/p>\n The Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument, or DESI, provides a complementary approach from the ground. It measures patterns in the distribution of galaxies and quasars. Those patterns preserve a characteristic scale, originating in the early universe, that astronomers use to trace expansion.<\/p>\n Saul Perlmutter, professor of physics and recipient of the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics for the discovery of an accelerating expansion of the universe. (CREDIT: Christopher Michel) <\/p>\n DESI measurements combined with supernova observations and cosmic microwave background data have strengthened hints that dark energy may evolve. The result depends on the datasets and assumptions used. It has not established changing dark energy as a confirmed discovery.<\/p>\n Roman could help test those hints with a new set of observations. Its galaxy surveys will also investigate the distribution of matter and the effects of gravity. Comparing independent measurements gives scientists ways to check explanations that fit one dataset but struggle with another.<\/p>\n Another telescope could complete the picture<\/p>\n A planned privately funded observatory, Lazuli, could complement Roman\u2019s broad surveys with detailed follow-up. Supported by Eric and Wendy Schmidt, the proposed three-meter space telescope includes spectroscopy across visible and near-infrared wavelengths. Its designers aim to support supernova studies among other investigations.<\/p>\n Spectra can help distinguish subtle differences among Type Ia supernovae and improve comparisons across distances. Perlmutter sees the combination as an opportunity to recover capabilities envisioned during the earlier SNAP effort. Lazuli\u2019s deployment and performance remain future milestones, rather than guarantees of a solved cosmological mystery.<\/p>\n For Lu\u2019s team, the immediate work is computational. Software built for individual targets must become efficient enough to handle many simultaneously. Roman\u2019s scientific reach will depend on both the observatory\u2019s measurements and the people able to turn its public archive into tested discoveries.<\/p>\n Astronomer Jessica Lu is co-leading a large consortium of scientists that hopes to rapidly digest the firehose of data the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is expected to produce. (CREDIT: Jessica Lu) Dig deeper into Roman and the changing universe<\/p>\n These resources explain Roman\u2019s observing plans and the research behind its searches for hidden objects and dark energy.<\/p>\n Related Stories<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Roman is designed to return about 1.4 terabytes of data daily, with observations becoming publicly available after processing.A…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":932894,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[305,64,63,325,55712,13265,65870,499765,26583,226267,499766,499767,131,119917,337,35325,499768,128,109497,125102,192590,163380],"class_list":["post-932893","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-astronomy","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-black-holes","tag-cosmic-expansion","tag-cosmology","tag-dark-energy","tag-david-weinberg","tag-exoplanets","tag-gravitational-microlensing","tag-jessica-lu","tag-lazuli-space-observatory","tag-nasa","tag-new-discoveries","tag-research","tag-roman-space-telescope","tag-saul-perlmutter","tag-science","tag-space-news","tag-space-telescopes","tag-supernovae","tag-uc-berkeley"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/932893","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=932893"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/932893\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/932894"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=932893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=932893"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=932893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}