NASA’s Roman telescope just opened its planet-hunting eye

NASA’s Roman Space Telescope has demonstrated remarkable pointing stability and given its powerful planet-imaging coronagraph its first look at the cosmos. The telescope can already stay locked on a target with precision comparable to aiming a laser at a dime from about 150 miles away. Its coronagraph also captured stars in the Large Magellanic Cloud, confirming that the instrument can produce focused images.

NASA’s Roman telescope just opened its planet-hunting eye. Com NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope has completed an important series of tests showing that it can keep its gaze extremely steady during observations. 15 to 21, engineers tested Roman’s fine-guidance system, which helps the observatory remain precisely locked onto its targets.

22, the telescope’s Coronagraph Instrument received cosmic light for the first time. Roman’s primary science instrument, the Wide Field Instrument, contains 18 detectors. Engineers designated a small section of each detector to rapidly monitor a different guide star — stars whose positions are already known with high precision.