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The Galaxy is a collection of stars, planets, gas clouds and to the dismay of astronomers, dust clouds. The dust blocks starlight from penetrating so it\u2019s very difficult to learn about the far side of the Galaxy. Thankfully the upcoming Nancy Grace Roman telescope has infrared capability so it can see through the dust. A systematic survey of the far side of the Milky Way is planned to see what\u2019s there and could discover billions of objects in just a month.\u00a0<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n The Nancy Grace Roman telescope (NGRt) has been named after NASA\u2019s inaugural chief astronomer who was known as the \u2018mother of the Hubble Space Telescope.\u2019 It will have a field of view at least 100 times that of Hubble giving it an impressive swathe of space in each capture. Not only will it be able to peer through dust clouds, it also has the capability to block out starlight enabling direct observation of exoplanets and other infrared observations.\u00a0<\/p>\n The incredible resolution of NGRt will help to identify individual stars within interstellar dust clouds even at the far reaches of the Galaxy. It\u2019s expected the observations will lead to the creation of an extensive stellar catalogue of stars previously unseen. Even the mapping observatory satellite Gaia (from the European Space Agency) didn\u2019t have the mapping and precision available from NGRt which will surpass it tenfold. The extraordinary work of Gaia mapped over a billion stars within a distance of about 10,000 light years. NGRt will go a step further and map over 100 billion stars out to 100,000 light years! As far as our Galaxy is concerned, there\u2019s not much out of NGRt\u2019s reach. Even Spitzer, NASA\u2019s infrared space telescope had surveyed the Galactic plane, it did not have the resolution to resolve stars on the far side of the Galaxy.<\/p>\n In 2021 calls were made for ideas for surveys and the Galactic Plane Survey was the top ranking idea. It is now down to the scientific community to pull together observational projects to support the survey. It\u2019s impressive to think that the survey will be targeting 1,000 square degrees of sky, equivalent to 5,000 full moons. That might not sound like too much but it would pretty much allow for all the stars in our Galaxy to be surveyed. That might sound like a lifelong piece of work but NGRt is a telescope that means business, knocking out the survey in around a month!<\/p>\n Other observatories could of course undertake similar projects but it would take years for even Hubble or James Webb Space telescope to achieve the same results. They are far more suited to studying external galaxies and we have seen some incredible images revealing complex galactic structure. Our own Galaxy has rather been overlooked, but it\u2019s actually quite difficult to study our own! The entire sky needs to be observed and then there is the obscuring effect of dust. \u2018We have studied our own Solar System\u2019s neighbourhood well\u2019 says Catherine Zucker, co-author of a white paper entitled \u2018Roman Early-Definition Astrophysics Survey Opportunity\u2019 and astrophysicist at the Center for Astrophysics Harvard & Smithsonian. \u2018We have a very incomplete view of what the other half of what the Milky Way looks like beyond the Galactic centre.\u2019 she went on to say.\u00a0<\/p>\n NGRt is due for launch in 2027 and, if all goes to plan, looks set to deliver not only some exciting science but the first time view of objects on the far side of the Galaxy.<\/p>\n Source :\u00a0 NASA\u2019s Roman Team Selects Survey to Map Our Galaxy\u2019s Far Side<\/p>\nLike this:<\/h3>\n