Dr. Nancy Grace Roman visits James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and the Hubble Project Team.

Dr. Nancy Grace Roman visits James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and the Hubble Project Team.

Dr. Nancy Grace Roman visits James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and the Hubble Project Team. Dr. John Mather.

Dr. Nancy Grace Roman visits James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and the Hubble Project Team.

Dr. Nancy Grace Roman visits James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and the Hubble Project Team. Center Director Chris Scolese

Dr. Nancy Grace Roman visits James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and the Hubble Project Team. Center Director Chris Scolese

In a clean room at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California in October 2023, scientist Vanessa Bailey stands behind the Roman Coronagraph, which has been undergoing testing at the lab. Designed to block starlight and allow scientists to see the faint light from planets outside our solar system, the Coronagraph is a technology demonstration that will be part of NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope. https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA26272

The focal plane mask for the Coronagraph Instrument on NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, shown here, is one of the components used to suppress starlight and reveal planets orbiting a star. Each circular section contains multiple "masks" – carefully engineered, opaque obstructions designed to block starlight. Some masks are about the width of a human hair. https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA25438

The Roman Coronagraph Instrument on NASA's upcoming Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will test new tools that block starlight, revealing planets hidden by the glare of their parent stars. The technology demonstration instrument is shown here on May 17, 2024, at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, where it was designed and built. Mission team members are using a crane to lift the top portion of the shipping container that the instrument was stored in for its journey to the agency's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, where it will join the rest of the space observatory in preparation for launch by May 2027. https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA26277

The Roman Coronagraph Instrument on NASA's upcoming Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will test new tools that block starlight, revealing planets hidden by the glare of their parent stars. The technology demonstration instrument is shown here – inside a shipping container – on May 17, 2024, at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, where it was designed and built. Mission team members said farewell to the instrument by signing their names to a flag (featuring the mission logo) on the outside of the container, which carried the instrument from JPL to NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. There, it will join the rest of the space observatory in preparation for launch by May 2027. https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA26278

The Roman Coronagraph Instrument, a technology demonstration that will be part of NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, is seen amid testing at the agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California in December 2023. During this test in a special isolated, electromagnetically quiet chamber, the instrument was peppered with radio waves to test its response to ensure that the electrical components on the instrument don't interfere with those on the rest of the observatory, and vice versa. The test was performed inside a chamber lined with foam padding that absorbs the radio waves to prevent them from bouncing off the walls. https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA26273

Engineer Jordan Rupp is shown at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in September 2022 with the optical bench for the Coronagraph Instrument on NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope. Light from the telescope is directed to the optical bench and passes through series of lenses, filters, and other components that ultimately suppress light from a star while allowing the light from orbiting planets to pass through. Mirrors redirect the light and keep it contained within the optical bench. In this image, the bench is partly assembled at the start of the integration and testing period for the instrument. The large black circles are surrogate components that are standing in for the actual instrument hardware. https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA25439

An engineer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory is shown here with the fast steering mirror, a component of the Coronagraph Instrument on NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope. The mirror can make small movements that correct for slight wobbling of the observatory. The incoming image needs to be perfectly sharp in order for the instrument to suppress light from a star while allowing the light from planets orbiting it to pass through. Although the technologies differ, it's analogous to image stabilization in digital cameras, in which the camera lens moves to counteract the shake of your hands and keep the image sharp. https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA25437

This image shows a series of color filters on the Color Filter Assembly for the Coronagraph Instrument on NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope. Each filter blocks all but a specific color, or wavelength, of light. Many of the filters appear dark in this photo because they block all visible light – the range of wavelengths that are visible to the human eye – but are transparent to infrared light, which encompasses a range of wavelengths slightly longer than visible light. Most of the filters will be used by the instrument for calibration purposes, but there are scientific uses for some of the filters as well. The presence or absence of different wavelengths can reveal properties of exoplanets (planets around other stars) including their chemical composition and the presence of clouds high or low in their atmospheres. For example, cold gas giant planets with high clouds will appear redder, like Jupiter, compared to those without high clouds, like Neptune. https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA25436

The Roman Coronagraph Instrument on NASA's upcoming Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will test new tools that block starlight, revealing planets hidden by the glare of their parent stars. This graphic shows a test of what engineers call "digging the dark hole." The image shows three computer readouts of real data from the coronagraph's camera. Engineers used lasers and special optics to replicate the light from a star as it would look when observed by the Roman telescope. The image at left shows the amount of starlight that leaks into the coronagraph's field of view when only fixed components called masks are used to block the star at the center of the circle. Using moveable components such as deformable mirrors, the coronagraph can remove more and more of this starlight. The middle and right images show the progression of this process, where red indicates less starlight, and black indicates most or all starlight has been removed. The deformable mirrors are each only 2 inches (5 centimeters) in diameter and backed by more than 2,000 tiny pistons that move up and down. The pistons work together to change the shape of the mirrors to compensate for the unwanted stray light that spills around the edges of the masks. Though they are too small to affect Roman's other highly precise measurements, the imperfections can send stray starlight into the dark hole. In space, this technique will enable astronomers to observe light directly from planets around other stars, or exoplanets. Once demonstrated on Roman, similar technologies on a future mission could enable astronomers to use that light to identify chemicals in an exoplanet's atmosphere, potentially indicating the presence of life. https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA26279

Engineers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory – from left, Brandon Creager, Juan Gloria, Joshua Nachtigal, and Sonny Gutierrez – are shown assembling the electronics palette for the Coronagraph Instrument on NASA's Roman Space Telescope in December 2022. One of two main sections of the instrument, this layer houses the instrument electronics that receive instructions from the Roman spacecraft and send back the Coronagraph Instrument's scientific data. The electronics also control the mechanical components on the optical bench and the instrument heaters. https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA25435

Dr. Nancy Grace Roman visits James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and the Hubble Project Team. Dr. John Mather.

Dr. Julie McEnery, senior project scientist on NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, right, briefs Vice President Kamala Harris, President Yoon Suk Yeol of the Republic of Korea and NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy on the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope in the observation area of the high bay clean room, Tuesday, April 25, 2023, at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. Photo Credit: (NASA/Joel Kowsky)

Vice President Kamala Harris, right, and NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy are see during a briefing on the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope by Dr. Julie McEnery, senior project scientist on NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, in the observation area of the high bay clean room, Tuesday, April 25, 2023, at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. Photo Credit: (NASA/Joel Kowsky)

Vice President Kamala Harris, right, NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy, and President Yoon Suk Yeol of the Republic of Korea are seen during a briefing by Dr. Julie McEnery, senior project scientist on NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, on the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope in the observation area of the high bay clean room, Tuesday, April 25, 2023, at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. Photo Credit: (NASA/Joel Kowsky)

Dr. Julie McEnery, senior project scientist on NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, right, briefs Vice President Kamala Harris, President Yoon Suk Yeol of the Republic of Korea and NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy on the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope in the observation area of the high bay clean room, Tuesday, April 25, 2023, at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. Photo Credit: (NASA/Joel Kowsky)

Dr. Julie McEnery, senior project scientist on NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, left, briefs Vice President Kamala Harris, President Yoon Suk Yeol of the Republic of Korea and NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy on the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope in the observation area of the high bay clean room, Tuesday, April 25, 2023, at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. Photo Credit: (NASA/Joel Kowsky)

Employees viewed James Webb Space Telescope in B29 on March 31, 2017 prior to final phase of integration and testing before 2018 launch. Project personnel were on hand for Q&A and LIVE Facebook event. Pictured here is Nancy Grace Roman “Mother of Hubble” viewing JWST.

In this illustration, NASA's SPHEREx mission is highlighted among a line of other NASA space telescopes. The mission will survey the entire sky using spectroscopy, detecting hundreds of millions of stars and galaxies and generating a valuable data set that will complement the work of other NASA observatories such as those depicted here. Shown from left to right (and not to scale) are: Hubble Space Telescope, launched in April 1990 Spitzer Space Telescope, launch in August 2003 WISE (Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer), launched in December 2009 James Webb Space Telescope, launched in December 2021 SPHEREx (Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explorer), targeted for launch in February 2025 Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, targeted for launch by May 2027 The SPHEREx observatory will image the entire sky in 102 colors (each an individual wavelength of light) to help scientists answer big-picture questions about the origins of our universe, galaxies, and key ingredients for life in our galaxy, such as water. https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA26535