NASA’s Roman Space Telescope exceeds expectations by nearly 30%
NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope has exceeded expectations after engineers made incredibly tiny adjustments to sharpen its view of the universe. By moving a mirror just one-sixteenth the width of a human hair, the team helped bring its powerful instruments into near-perfect alignment. Roman’s Wide Field Instrument now produces image quality nearly 30% better than predicted, promising exceptionally sharp…
Key points
- Roman's Wide Field Instrument achieved optical error of 63 nanometers RMS, nearly 30% better than the 90-nanometer requirement.
- Engineers needed only tiny mirror adjustments because ground testing left the telescope nearly perfectly aligned.
- The telescope launched on August 30 and will study dark matter, dark energy and other cosmic mysteries.
NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is performing better than scientists expected after engineers completed extensive testing and precision adjustments, the agency reports. Its main camera system now delivers image quality nearly 30% better than predicted.
The telescope launched on August 30 and is designed to investigate dark matter, dark energy and other mysteries of the universe. NASA said both of Roman's scientific instruments are meeting or surpassing expected performance.
Testing the camera system
After the Wide Field Instrument was activated in September, engineers tested its 18 detectors and their electronics, then evaluated a rotating element wheel holding filters and other optical parts. They also checked the instrument's internal calibration LEDs, its alignment mechanism and its thermal control system.
Dave Hickey, a Wide Field Instrument systems engineer at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, said many of the mission's primary goals "wouldn't be possible without it."
All of the images from Roman's cosmic surveys will be even sharper than we expected.
— Alden Jurling
Sharper images than expected
Engineers found the telescope's mirrors and optics were already positioned with remarkable accuracy, requiring only minor corrections. Alden Jurling, a senior optical engineer at NASA Goddard, said the secondary mirror was moved by about one-sixteenth of the diameter of a human hair.
Before launch, the image quality requirement was about 90 nanometers RMS, roughly 1,000 times thinner than a human hair. After the final corrections, engineers measured an optical error of just 63 nanometers RMS.
