NASA just powered up Roman’s massive 300-megapixel camera
NASA’s Roman Space Telescope has successfully activated its 300-megapixel infrared camera, which will capture enormous stretches of the cosmos with Hubble-like sharpness.
NASA’s Roman Space Telescope has successfully activated its 300-megapixel infrared camera, which will capture enormous stretches of the cosmos with Hubble-like sharpness.
The short version
- Its planet-hunting coronagraph is also working as expected, putting Roman another major step closer to beginning science operations in 2027.
- NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope has reached another major milestone in space.
- Mission teams have successfully powered up the Wide Field Instrument, a 300-megapixel infrared camera designed to survey enormous areas of the universe rapidly while still capturing extremely fine detail.
What happened
Roman's planet-imaging system, the Coronagraph Instrument, has also completed an early checkout of its digital, electronic, and mechanical systems after waking up earlier this month. The tests are part of a months-long commissioning process that will continue as Roman travels roughly one million miles toward its destination at the second Lagrange point, L2.
Why it matters
The Wide Field Instrument, or WFI, is designed to combine an unusually broad view of the sky with the kind of sharp detail associated with space telescopes such as NASA's Hubble.
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