NASA Telescope Named for 'Mother of Hubble' Nancy Grace Roman
At the agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, team members are building the Coronagraph Instrument for the spacecraft and contributing to the mission's science goals.
NASA is naming its
next-generation space telescope currently under development, the Wide Field Infrared
Survey Telescope (WFIRST), in honor of Nancy Grace Roman, NASA's first chief astronomer, who paved the way for space
telescopes focused on the broader universe.
The newly named
Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope - or Roman Space Telescope, for short - is set
to launch in the mid-2020s. It will investigate long-standing astronomical mysteries,
such as the force behind the universe's expansion, and search for distant planets
beyond our solar system.
Considered the "mother"
of NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, which launched 30 years ago, Roman tirelessly
advocated for new tools that would allow scientists to study the broader universe
from space. She left behind a tremendous legacy in the scientific community when
she died in 2018.
"It
is because of Nancy Grace Roman's leadership and vision that NASA became a pioneer
in astrophysics and launched Hubble, the world's most powerful and productive space
telescope," said NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine. "I can think of no
better name for WFIRST, which will be the successor to NASA's Hubble and Webb Telescopes."
Former Sen. Barbara
Mikulski, who worked with NASA on the Hubble and WFIRST space telescopes, said,
"It is fitting that as we celebrate the 100th anniversary of women's suffrage,
NASA has announced the name of their new WFIRST telescope in honor of Dr. Nancy
Roman, the Mother of Hubble - well deserved. It recognizes the incredible achievements
of women in science and moves us even closer to no more hidden figures and no more
hidden galaxies."
Who Was Nancy
Grace Roman?
Born on May 16, 1925, in
Nashville, Tennessee, Roman consistently persevered
in the face of challenges that plagued many women of her generation interested in
science. By seventh grade, she knew she wanted to be an astronomer. Despite being
discouraged about going into science - the head of Swarthmore College's physics
department told her he usually dissuaded girls from majoring in physics, but that
she "might make it" - Roman earned a bachelor's degree in astronomy from
Swarthmore in 1946 and a doctorate from the University of Chicago in 1949.
She remained at Chicago for six years and made discoveries
about the compositions of stars that had implications for the evolution of our Milky
Way galaxy. Knowing that her chances of achieving tenure at a university as a woman
were slim at that time, she took a position at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory
and made strides in researching cosmic questions through radio waves.
Roman came to NASA
in 1959, just six months after the agency had been established. At that time, she
served as the chief of astronomy and relativity in the Office of Space Science,
managing astronomy-related programs and grants.
"I knew that taking on
this responsibility would mean that I could no longer do research, but the challenge
of formulating a program from scratch that I believed would influence astronomy
for decades to come was too great to resist," she said in a NASA interview.
This was a difficult era for women who wanted to advance in scientific
research. While Roman said that men generally treated her equally at NASA, she also
revealed in one interview that she had to use the prefix "Dr." with her name because "otherwise,
I could not get past the secretaries."
But she persisted
in her vision to establish new ways to probe the secrets of the universe. When she arrived at NASA, astronomers could obtain data from balloons,
sounding rockets and airplanes, but they could not measure all the wavelengths of
light. Earth's atmosphere blocks out much of the radiation that comes from the distant
universe. What's more, only a telescope in space has the luxury of perpetual nighttime
and doesn't have to shut down during the day. Roman knew that to see the universe through more powerful,
unblinking eyes, NASA would have to send telescopes to space.
Through Roman's
leadership, NASA launched four Orbiting Astronomical Observatories
between 1966 and 1972. While only two of the four were successful, they demonstrated
the value of space-based astrophysics and represented the precursors to Hubble.
She also championed the International Ultraviolet Explorer, which was built in the
1970s as a joint project between NASA, ESA (European Space Agency) and the United
Kingdom, as well as the Cosmic Background Explorer, which measured the leftover
radiation from the big bang and led to two of its leading scientists receiving the
2006 Nobel Prize in Physics.
Above all, Roman
is credited with making the Hubble Space Telescope a reality. In the mid-1960s,
she set up a committee of astronomers and engineers to envision a telescope that
could accomplish important scientific goals. She convinced NASA and Congress that
it was a priority to launch the most powerful space telescope the world had ever
seen.
Hubble turned out
to be the most scientifically revolutionary space telescope of all time. Ed Weiler,
Hubble's chief scientist until 1998, called Roman "the mother of the Hubble
Space Telescope."
"Nancy Grace Roman was a leader and advocate
whose dedication contributed to NASA seriously pursuing the field of astrophysics
and taking it to new heights," said Thomas Zurbuchen, NASA's
associate administrator for science. "Her name deserves
a place in the heavens she studied and opened for so many."
What
Is the Roman Space Telescope?
The Roman Space Telescope will be a NASA observatory
designed to settle essential questions in the areas of dark energy, exoplanets and
infrared astrophysics. The telescope has a primary mirror that is 2.4 meters (7.9
feet) in diameter and is the same size as the Hubble Space Telescope's primary mirror.
The Roman Space Telescope is designed to have two instruments, the Wide Field Instrument and a
technology demonstration Coronagraph Instrument. The Wide Field Instrument
will have a field of view that is 100 times greater than the Hubble infrared instrument, allowing it to capture more of the sky
with less observing time. The Coronagraph Instrument will perform high contrast
imaging and spectroscopy of individual nearby exoplanets.
The
WFIRST project passed a critical programmatic and technical milestone in February, giving
the mission the official green light to begin hardware development and testing.
With the passage of this latest key milestone, the team will begin finalizing the
mission design by building engineering test units and models to ensure the design
will hold up under the extreme conditions during launch and while in space.
NASA's Fiscal Year 2020 Consolidated Appropriations Act funds
the WFIRST program through September 2020. It is not included in the Fiscal Year
2021 budget request, as the administration wants to focus on completing the James
Webb Space Telescope.
For a statement
from Nancy Grace Roman's cousins, Laura Bates Verreau and Barbara Brinker, go to:
https://go.nasa.gov/2WREEtz
For more information about the Roman Space Telescope, go to:
https://www.nasa.gov/roman
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