Hunt for alien planets: Nasa's next-gen Roman Space Telescope coming soon

The Roman Coronagraph, developed to detect planets 100 million times fainter than their stars, has been successfully integrated onto the space telescope

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa) is set to launch the next-gen space observatory, called Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, in May 2027. The brand new telescope has an upgraded field of view–100 larger than the Hubble Space Telescope–helping scientists to spot alien worlds. It will allow astronomers to unravel scientific mysteries linked to dark energy, exoplanets and infrared astrophysics. 

 

According to the US space agency, the new space technology will be a stepping stone to future technology allowing astronomers to search for inhabited plants, beyond our own star system. The mission also aims to test the Roman Coronagraph Instrument crucial in helping future telescopes spotting Earth-like planets. 

 

Roman Space Telescope deputy project scientist for communications, Rob Zellem, said, "In order to get from where we are to where we want to be, we need the Roman Coronagraph to demonstrate this technology.” 

 

“We'll be applying those lessons learned to the next generation of NASA flagship missions that will be explicitly designed to look for Earth-like planets,” he added.

 

The coronagraph is a complex system of detectors, prisms, self-flexing mirrors and masks roughly the size of a baby grand piano designed to block the light from stars so scientists can see the faint traces from the planets orbiting them. 

 

Currently, scientists spot planets orbiting distant suns by spotting telltale dips in brightness as the planet passes between the star and the observer. While we have been identifying thousands of planets like this, the method has limitations–firstly the planet travels between the star and the observer, and because of the angle we are viewing many stars at, they could have planets and we would never know. 

 

Thereafter, the dimming of a planet passing in front of a star is very quick, so easily missed. Other planets can be spotted as they emit light themselves, these are recently formed giant worlds and are still glowing from the fires of their creation. 

 

Roman Coronagraph Instrument gives scientists a new tool in their search for alien worlds and allows them to block out the light from stars seeing fainter planets directly. 

 

According to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, "The Roman Coronagraph is designed to detect planets 100 million times fainter than their stars, or 100 to 1,000 times better than existing space-based coronagraphs."

 

The agency also stated that, “This capability is central to NASA’s next flagship astrophysics mission concept, the Habitable Worlds Observatory, which aims to image and characterise planets similar to Earth that orbit Sun-like stars.”