{"id":770279,"date":"2023-10-24T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-10-24T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/?p=770279"},"modified":"2023-10-24T10:00:00","modified_gmt":"2023-10-24T14:00:00","slug":"why-nasas-roman-mission-will-study-milky-ways-flickering-lights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/?p=770279","title":{"rendered":"Why NASA\u2019s Roman Mission Will Study Milky Way\u2019s Flickering Lights"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A simulated image of Roman\u2019s observations toward the center of our galaxy, spanning only less than 1 percent of the total area of Roman\u2019s galactic bulge time-domain survey. The simulated stars were drawn from the Besan\u00e7on Galactic Model.<\/div>\n
Credit: Matthew Penny (Louisiana State University)<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

NASA\u2019s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will provide one of the deepest-ever views into the heart of our Milky Way galaxy. The mission will monitor hundreds of millions of stars in search of tell-tale flickers that betray the presence of planets, distant stars, small icy objects that haunt the outskirts of our solar system, isolated black holes, and more. Roman will likely set a new record for the farthest-known exoplanet, offering a glimpse of a different galactic neighborhood that could be home to worlds quite unlike the more than 5,500<\/a> that are currently known.<\/p>\n

Roman\u2019s long-term sky monitoring, which will enable these results, represents a boon to what scientists call time-domain astronomy, which studies how the universe changes over time. Roman will join a growing, international fleet of observatories working together to capture these changes as they unfold. Roman\u2019s Galactic Bulge Time-Domain Survey will focus on the Milky Way, using the telescope\u2019s infrared vision<\/a> to see through clouds of dust that can block our view of the crowded central region of our galaxy.<\/p>\n

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Watch this video to learn about time-domain astronomy and how time will be a key element in the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope\u2019s galactic bulge survey. Credit: NASA\u2019s Goddard Space Flight Center<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cRoman will be an incredible discovery machine, pairing a vast view of space with keen vision,\u201d said Julie McEnery, the Roman senior project scientist at NASA\u2019s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. \u201cIts time-domain surveys will yield a treasure trove of new information about the cosmos.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Roman launches, expected by May 2027, the mission will scour the center of the Milky Way for <\/a>microlensing events<\/a>, which occur when an object such as a star or planet comes into near-perfect alignment with an unrelated background star from our viewpoint. Because anything with mass <\/a>warps the fabric of space-time<\/a>, light from the distant star bends around the nearer object as it passes close by. The nearer object therefore acts as a natural magnifying glass, creating a temporary spike in the brightness of the background star\u2019s light. That signal lets astronomers know there\u2019s an intervening object, even if they can\u2019t see it directly.<\/p>\n

In current plans, the survey will involve taking an image every 15 minutes around the clock for about two months. Astronomers will repeat the process six times over Roman\u2019s five-year primary mission for a combined total of more than a year of observations.<\/p>\n

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\"A<\/figure>
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This artist\u2019s concept shows the region of the Milky Way Roman\u2019s galactic bulge time-domain survey will cover. The higher density of stars in this direction will yield more than 50,000 microlensing events, which will reveal planets, black holes, neutron stars, trans-Neptunian objects, and enable exciting stellar science. The survey will also cover relatively uncharted territory when it comes to planet-finding. That\u2019s important because the way planets form and evolve may be different depending on where in the galaxy they\u2019re located. Our solar system is situated near the outskirts of the Milky Way, about halfway out on one of the galaxy\u2019s spiral arms. A recent Kepler Space Telescope study showed that stars on the fringes of the Milky Way possess fewer of the most common planet types that have been detected so far. Roman will search in the opposite direction, toward the center of the galaxy, and could find differences in that galactic neighborhood, too.<\/div>\n
Credit: NASA\u2019s Goddard Space Flight Center\/CI Lab<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cThis will be one of the longest exposures of the sky ever taken,\u201d said Scott Gaudi, an astronomy professor at Ohio State University in Columbus, whose research is helping inform Roman\u2019s survey strategy. \u201cAnd it will cover territory that is largely uncharted when it comes to planets.\u201d<\/p>\n

Astronomers expect the survey to reveal more than a thousand planets orbiting far from their host stars and in systems located farther from Earth than any previous mission has detected. That includes some that could lie within their host star\u2019s habitable zone \u2013 the range of orbital distances where liquid water can exist on the surface \u2013 and worlds that weigh in at as little as a few times the mass of the Moon.<\/p>\n

Roman can even detect \u201crogue\u201d worlds<\/a> that don\u2019t orbit a star at all using microlensing. These cosmic castaways<\/a> may have formed in isolation or been kicked out of their home planetary systems. Studying them offers clues about how planetary systems form and evolve.<\/p>\n

Roman\u2019s microlensing observations will also help astronomers explore how common planets are around different types of stars<\/a>, including binary systems. The mission will estimate how many worlds with two host stars are found in our galaxy by identifying real-life \u201cTatooine\u201d planets, building on work started by NASA\u2019s Kepler Space Telescope<\/a> and TESS<\/a> (the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite).<\/p>\n

Some of the objects the survey will identify exist in a cosmic gray area. Known as brown dwarfs<\/a>, they\u2019re too massive to be characterized as planets, but not quite massive enough to ignite as stars. Studying them will allow astronomers to explore the boundary between planet and star formation.<\/p>\n

Roman is also expected to spot more than a thousand neutron stars and hundreds of stellar-mass black holes<\/a>. These heavyweights form after a massive star exhausts its fuel and collapses. The black holes are nearly impossible to find when they don\u2019t have a visible companion to signal their presence, but Roman will be able to detect them even if unaccompanied because microlensing relies only on an object\u2019s gravity. The mission will also find isolated neutron stars \u2013 the leftover cores of stars that weren\u2019t quite massive enough to become black holes.<\/p>\n

Astronomers will use Roman to find thousands of Kuiper belt<\/a> objects, which are icy bodies scattered mostly beyond Neptune. The telescope will spot some as small as about six miles across (about 1 percent of Pluto\u2019s diameter), sometimes by seeing them directly from reflected sunlight and others as they block the light of background stars.<\/p>\n

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This animation compares signals from two planet detection methods: microlensing (top) and transit (bottom) for both high- and low-mass planets. Microlensing creates spikes in a star\u2019s brightness, while transits have the opposite effect. Since both methods involve tracking the amount of light we receive from stars over time, astronomers will be able to use the same data set for both methods. Credit: NASA\u2019s Goddard Space Flight Center\/CI Lab<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A similar type of shadow play will reveal 100,000 transiting planets<\/a> between Earth and the center of the galaxy. These worlds cross in front of their host star as they orbit and temporarily dim the light we receive from the star. This method will reveal planets orbiting much closer to their host stars than microlensing reveals, and likely some that lie in the habitable zone.<\/p>\n

Scientists will also conduct stellar seismology studies on a million giant stars. This will involve analyzing brightness changes caused by sound waves echoing through a star\u2019s gaseous interior to learn about its structure, age, and other properties.<\/p>\n

All of these scientific discoveries and more will come from Roman\u2019s Galactic Bulge Time-Domain Survey, which will account for less than a fourth of the observing time in Roman\u2019s five-year primary mission. Its broad view of space will allow astronomers to conduct many of these studies in ways that have never been possible before, giving us a new view of an ever-changing universe.<\/p>\n

The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is managed at NASA\u2019s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, with participation by NASA\u2019s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Caltech\/IPAC in Southern California, the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, and a science team comprising scientists from various research institutions. The primary industrial partners are Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corporation in Boulder, Colorado; L3Harris Technologies in Melbourne, Florida; and Teledyne Scientific & Imaging in Thousand Oaks, California.<\/p>\n

Download high-resolution video and images from NASA\u2019s Scientific Visualization Studio<\/a><\/p>\n

By Ashley Balzer<\/em><\/strong>
NASA\u2019s Goddard Space Flight Center<\/em><\/strong><\/a>, Greenbelt, Md.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u200b\u200bMedia Contact:<\/em><\/strong>
Claire Andreoli<\/em><\/strong><\/a>
NASA\u2019s Goddard Space Flight Center<\/em><\/strong><\/a>
301-286-1940<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

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