NASA’s wide-field infrared measuring telescope (Wfirst) is now called Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, after NASA’s first head of astronomy.
NASA
NASA is giving a planned space telescope a name and a face that scientists can use to search the cosmos for mysterious dark matter and dark energy and to study distant worlds.
The space agency on Wednesday announced the wide field infrared measuring telescope (Wfirst) is renamed Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope in honor of NASA’s first chief astronomer.
“At a time when women were actively discouraged … she became an astronomer,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, NASA’s associate science administrator, in a live stream announcement. “Her name deserves a place in heaven that she studied and opened to so many.”
Roman first joined NASA in 1959, just a few months after it was founded, and is perhaps best known as the visionary force behind the Hubble Space Telescope, which it has designed, planned, and endorsed for decades.
“I knew that assuming this responsibility would mean that I could no longer do research, but the challenge was to rewrite a program from scratch that I thought would affect astronomy for decades to come great to resist, “she said in one NASA interview.
Roman remained active in astronomy for years after she retired. She died in 2018.
The space telescope that will bear its name is still under development and has been further developed Despite the efforts of the Trump administration, Congress is making progress to cancel it in the past few years.
The Roman space telescope has a primary mirror the same size as Hubble, but its wide-field instrument offers a field of view 100 times larger than Hubble’s infrared instrument. Roman will also wear a coronagraph to study worlds beyond our solar system.
NASA is currently planning a launch date for the Roman space telescope in October 2025.