Topic: Research News
The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope has completed tests showing it can keep its gaze steady during observations. Engineers tested the telescope's fine-guidance system, which helps it stay precisely locked onto targets. The telescope's Coronagraph Instrument received cosmic light for the first time.
NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope has an important job: to find new planets outside our solar system. To do this, it needs to be very steady and precise in its observations. Recently, engineers tested the telescope's fine-guidance system, which helps it stay precisely locked onto targets.
The test was done from September 15 to 21. During this time, the engineers made sure that the telescope could keep its gaze extremely steady during observations. They used a special system called the fine-guidance system, which continuously tracks reference stars and supplies information to correct tiny movements during an exposure.
On September 22, the telescope's Coronagraph Instrument received cosmic light for the first time. This is a big step forward in the telescope's development. The Coronagraph Instrument is designed to demonstrate advanced technologies that suppress the brilliant light from stars so scientists can study much fainter planets and dusty disks orbiting nearby stars.
The Roman Space Telescope has 18 detectors, which are like super-sensitive eyes that help it observe the universe. Each detector has a small section that rapidly monitors a different guide star - stars whose positions are already known with high precision. The telescope's attitude control system first points the spacecraft toward the correct area of the sky.
Begoña Vila, Roman's guiding instrument systems lead at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, said,
Implications
The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope has completed tests showing it can keep its gaze steady during observations. Engineers tested the telescope's fine-guidance system, which helps it stay precisely locked onto targets. The telescope's Coronagraph Instrument received cosmic light for the first time.
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