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Source-This post on Nancy Grace Roman telescope is based on the article “NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman telescope to hunt for primordial black holes from Big Bang era” published in “The WION” on 16th May 2024.
Why in the News?
NASA’s forthcoming Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is set to embark on a pioneering mission to search for primordial black holes that originated billions of years ago, close to the time of the Big Bang.
About Nancy Grace Roman telescope
1. About the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope: It is formerly the Wide Field InfraRed Survey Telescope (WFIRST). It is a NASA observatory designed to settle essential questions in the areas of dark energy, exoplanets and infrared astrophysics. The telescope will provide one of the most in-depth views into the center of our Milky Way galaxy.
3. Objectives of the Mission: It will continuously observe hundreds of millions of stars to detect subtle changes in brightness that indicate the presence of planets, distant stars, icy objects on the fringes of our solar system, and isolated black holes.
4. Telescope Instruments:
i) Wide Field Instrument (WFI): WFI will allow scientists to explore the cosmos all the way from the outskirts of our solar system to the edge of the observable universe.
ii) Expansive Field of View: It possesses a field of view 100 times larger than Hubble’s infrared instrument, allowing for broader sky coverage in less time.
iv) Galactic Survey: It aimed at measuring light from a billion galaxies throughout the mission.
v) Exoplanet Search: It will conduct a microlensing survey of the inner Milky Way to discover approximately 2,600 exoplanets.
vi) Coronagraph Instrument:
a) Advanced Imaging: It serves as a technology demonstrator for high-contrast imaging and spectroscopy of nearby exoplanets.
b) Focused Galactic Survey: The Galactic Bulge Time-Domain Survey will use infrared vision to penetrate dust clouds obscuring the dense central region of the Milky Way.
5. Observational Strategy:
a) Frequent Imaging: It will take images every 15 minutes continuously around the clock for about two months.
b) Extended Mission Timeline: This imaging cycle will be repeated six times throughout the five-year primary mission, amounting to over a year of total observation time.
UPSC Syllabus: Science and technology
