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Roman Space Telescope Coronagraph Instrument Poster


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Coronagraph Instrument Poster

NASA’s Roman Coronagraph Instrument will greatly advance our ability to directly image exoplanets, or planets and disks around other stars.

The Roman Coronagraph Instrument, a technology demonstration designed and built by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, will fly aboard NASA’s next flagship astrophysics observatory, the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope.

Coronagraphs work by blocking light from a bright object, like a star, so that the observer can more easily see a nearby faint object, like a planet. The Roman Coronagraph Instrument will use a unique suite of technologies including deformable mirrors, masks, high-precision cameras, and active wavefront sensing and control to detect planets 100 million times fainter than their stars, or 100 to 1,000 times better than existing space-based coronagraphs. The Roman Coronagraph will be capable of directly imaging reflected starlight from a planet akin to Jupiter in size, temperature, and distance from its parent star.

Coronagraph Instrument Poster (key)

Artwork Key

1. The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope

2. Exoplanet Count : Total number of exoplanets discovered at the time of poster release. This number is increasing all of the time.

3. Nancy Grace Roman’s birth year : Nancy Grace Roman was born on May 16, 1925.  

4. Color Filters : Filters block different wavelengths, or colors, of light.

5. Exoplanet Camera

6. Deformable Mirrors : Adjusts the wavefront of incoming light by changing the shape of a mirror with thousands of tiny pistons.

7. Focal Plane Mask : This is a mask that helps to block starlight and reveal exoplanets.

8. Lyot Stop Mask : This is a mask that helps to block starlight and reveal exoplanets.

9. Fast Steering Mirror : This element corrects for telescope pointing jitter.

10. Additional Coronagraph Masks : These masks block most of the glare from stars to reveal faint orbiting planets and dusty debris disks.

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      News Media Contact
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      Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
      626-808-2469
      calla.e.cofield@jpl.nasa.gov
      2025-011
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      Artwork Key
      1. The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope
      2. Light Path : The light entering the telescope will take this path, bouncing off of multiple focusing mirrors and passing through filters or dispersers in the element wheel to reach the detectors.
      3. Important Years : 1990: NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope launched. 1960: Nancy Grace Roman became NASA’s Chief Astronomer.
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      Jan 14, 2025
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