Latest news with #NancyGraceRomanSpaceTelescope
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Business Standard
16-07-2025
- Science
- Business Standard
NASA's Roman telescope to unlock 100,000 cosmic explosions in major survey
NASA's soon-to-launch Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is gearing up for a cosmic fireworks show unlike any other. According to a new study, one of its most ambitious sky surveys could uncover over 100,000 cosmic explosions — from brilliant supernovae to ravenous black holes — offering science enthusiasts and astrophysicists a potential treasure trove of discoveries. At the heart of this celestial hunt lies the High-Latitude Time-Domain Survey, an ambitious program that will observe the same vast patch of sky every five days over two years. These repeated scans will be stitched into detailed time-lapse 'movies' of the universe, capturing dynamic events as they unfold across billions of light-years. 'Whether you want to explore dark energy, dying stars, galactic powerhouses, or entirely new cosmic phenomena, this survey will be a gold mine,' said Benjamin Rose, assistant professor at Baylor University and lead author of the new study published in The Astrophysical Journal. Why it matters: a window into dark energy and ancient stars Among the most sought-after events are Type Ia supernovae — thermonuclear explosions of white dwarfs in binary systems. These stellar blasts shine with near-uniform brightness, making them perfect 'standard candles' to measure vast cosmic distances. Roman is expected to spot 27,000 of them, more than 10 times the total found by all previous surveys combined. Crucially, Roman's deep gaze will peer farther into the universe, and further back in time, than ever before. It could detect supernovae from over 11.5 billion years ago, potentially setting a new record for the farthest-known Type Ia explosion. Such data is critical in refining our understanding of dark energy, the mysterious force that's accelerating the universe's expansion. Evidence suggests that dark energy might have evolved over time, and Roman could help confirm this by mapping how the universe expanded across different epochs. 'Filling these data gaps could also fill in gaps in our understanding of dark energy,' said Rose. 'Roman will explore cosmic history in ways other telescopes can't.' Not just supernovae: a cosmic jackpot While Type Ia supernovae are the stars of the show for cosmologists, Roman will also observe about 60,000 core-collapse supernovae — explosions of massive stars that burn through their fuel and collapse. It may also detect feeding black holes, luminous kilonovae from neutron star mergers, and perhaps signatures of the universe's first stars, believed to self-destruct without leaving any trace. Distinguishing between these various cosmic explosions is a challenge. But scientists plan to use machine learning algorithms, trained on Roman's massive dataset, to sort through the incoming flood of data. 'Roman is going to collect a lot of cosmic 'bycatch'—phenomena that might be irrelevant to some but gold for others,' said Rebekah Hounsell, co-author of the study and research scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. With science operations expected to begin in 2027, Roman is poised to deliver a new era of time-domain astronomy—watching the cosmos in motion, and catching its most spectacular moments in the act.
New York Post
28-06-2025
- Science
- New York Post
Unprecedented view of our neighboring Andromeda Galaxy revealed
A new composite image of the Andromeda Galaxy is offering an unprecedented view of our closest spiral galactic neighbor. Composed by NASA and international space partners, the image combines data from more than a dozen telescopes and ground-based observatories. Advertisement Located about 2.5 million light-years from Earth, Andromeda, which is also known as Messier 31m has been a focus of the space community for more than a century, with early observations dating back to at least 1923 by astronomer Edwin Hubble. A key focus of ongoing studies has been the galaxy's evolution and structure, which shares many similar features with our own Milky Way. The new imagery weaves together data from X-rays captured by NASA's Chandra telescope, the European Space Agency's XMM-Newton spacecraft and several other missions to create a unique view of the galaxy's features. 'Each type of light reveals new information about this close galactic relative to the Milky Way. For example, Chandra's X-rays reveal the high-energy radiation around the supermassive black hole at the center of M31 as well as many other smaller compact and dense objects strewn across the galaxy,' NASA stated. Advertisement 3 The Andromeda galaxy is located about 2.5 million light-years from Earth. FOX Weather 3 On a clear night, some stars of the galaxy can be seen from Earth. FOX Weather Unlike the Milky Way, which is difficult to observe from within due to dust, gas and Earth's position inside it, Andromeda can be studied from a great distance, offering astronomers a more complete and unobstructed view. Despite the insights revealed by this image, many mysteries remain about the spiral galaxy, including the composition of invisible dark matter, how it interacts with other cosmic structures and how many stars and planets it truly contains. Advertisement Andromeda is believed to contain hundreds of billions of stars, leading scientists to theorize that it could also host trillions of planets. 3 A key focus of ongoing studies has been the galaxy's evolution and structure, which shares many similar features with our own Milky Way. FOX Weather Even with an army of advanced space technology available today, no telescope is powerful enough to overcome the vast distance and identify a single planet, or, for that matter, even a star, in detail within Andromeda. Advertisement NASA says its upcoming Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is among several missions that will help continue to shed light on galaxies like M31. Named after the agency's first chief astronomer, the high-tech observatory is expected to launch in 2027 and will feature a field of view 100 times larger than that of the Hubble Space Telescope.
Yahoo
03-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Trump's Budget for NASA Is Absolutely Horrifying
Earlier this year, the Trump administration revealed its proposed budget for NASA's fiscal year 2026, indicating brutal cuts of unprecedented proportions are coming. Now, the agency has released new data about the proposal, painting a dire picture of its future. As SpaceNews reports, the documents reveal that thousands of jobs would be cut, and dozens of science missions would be on the chopping block. The cuts — which would drag the budget to its lowest point since 1961, SpaceNews points out, when adjusted for inflation — would result in the firing of roughly one-third of all civil servants. The budget would also slash the space agency's science budget in almost half, "nothing short of an extinction-level event for space science and exploration in the United States," as Planetary Society chief of space policy Casey Dreier told Ars Technica in March. The extent of the proposed cuts is truly baffling, with the Trump administration basically looking to give up on space science altogether in favor of militarizing the Earth's orbit and sending humans to Mars. The so-called "skinny" budget would result in the cancellation of several key space exploration missions, including NASA's Mars Sample Return mission. Other Earth observation programs would also be ripped up, including missions to monitor the planet's gravity field or study tropical cyclones, per SpaceNews. The budget would also cancel planned missions to explore the surface of Mars, as well as existing operations such as OSIRIS-APEX, which is headed to an asteroid called Apophis. While NASA's next major landmark space observatory, the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, wouldn't be entirely canceled, it would be allocated less than half of its previously outlined budget. Meanwhile, the space agency would be doubling down on establishing commercially funded ways to get to the Moon and Mars, highlighting the Trump administration's sometimes-cozy relationship with SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, whose space company is bound to reap the benefits. The budget would clear up north of $1 billion for projects connected to sending humans to the Red Planet, indicating the president is willing to closely follow Musk's lead. The proposed 2026 fiscal year budget is now headed to Congress, where it's likely to meet ample opposition. "No one is eager to cut NASA science," Dreier told SpaceNews. "No one is out there openly defending and saying that this is a great idea." In short, if it were to make it through Congress unaltered — which is unlikely, since the agency is supported by many lawmakers — Trump's NASA budget could deal the country's leadership in space an existential blow, allowing adversaries, most notably China, to race ahead. "It sends a signal that America is stepping back from leadership in virtually every science area, including NASA," former NASA associate administrator for science John Grunsfeld told PBS. "The proposal for the NASA science budget is, in fact, cataclysmic for US leadership in science." "What we see is a full-scale assault on science in America," representative George Whitesides (D-CA) added. "It is probably the biggest attack on our scientific establishment in history." "It's a poorly wielded chainsaw," he added. More on NASA's budget: NASA Disgusted by Elon Musk's Disrespect
Time of India
19-05-2025
- Politics
- Time of India
Donald Trump's NASA budget: Why it may make it difficult to track asteroids approaching Earth
The discussion around the possibility of an asteroid hitting the Earth mostly remains a topic of speculation among scientists and enthusiasts. Keeping the recent speculation about YR4 and other asteroids making rounds near the Earth, NASA has been developing new equipment to detect and track potentially hazardous asteroids. However, recent budget proposals by the Trump administration might threaten to derail this important planetary defense initiative. What budget cuts has Trump proposed for NASA? According to reports by Time and ArcsTechnia, President Trump's fiscal year 2026 budget proposal includes a 24% reduction in NASA's overall funding, dropping it from $24.8 billion to $18.8 billion, which is also the lowest since 2015. More concerning is the nearly 50% cut to the Science Mission Directorate, reducing its budget from $7.5 billion to $3.9 billion. This drastic reduction hampers and fiddles with numerous scientific programs, including planetary defense efforts like the NEO Surveyor mission . How does this impact the planetary defense system? The NEO Surveyor mission is NASA's next step in planetary defense, aiming to detect and characterise near-Earth objects (NEOs) that could be a possible threat to our planet. By operating in infrared wavelengths, it can identify asteroids that are invisible to optical telescopes. Delays or cancellations of this mission would leave Earth vulnerable to potential impacts from undetected asteroids. The budget has been partially restored In response to the proposed budget cuts, the House Appropriations Committee has partially restored funding for the NEO Surveyor mission, allocating $94.9 million. While this is a step in the right direction, it falls short of the $170 million, which NASA had requested to maintain the mission's timeline. The committee has urged NASA to provide a revised launch schedule that ensures the mission proceeds without further delays, as reported by Space News. The proposed budget cuts impact beyond planetary defense systems. Various other programs, such as the Mars Sample Return mission, the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, and the Space Launch System, are also on the edge. The Politico reported that former NASA Administrator Bill Nelson criticised the proposed budget cuts, likening them to attacking the agency with "a chainsaw and a meat-ax." He warned that such drastic reductions would severely harm NASA's core scientific research and technological development, potentially plunging the agency "into a dark age."
Gulf Today
05-05-2025
- Politics
- Gulf Today
To dumbly go where no space budget has gone before
Christopher Cokinos, Tribune News Service Reports that the White House may propose nearly a 50% cut to NASA's Science Mission Directorate are both mind-boggling and, if true, nothing short of disastrous. To make those cuts happen — a total of $3.6 billion — NASA would have to close the Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, and cancel the mission that will bring back samples of Mars, a mission to Venus and the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, which is nearly ready to launch. Every space telescope besides the Hubble and the James Webb would be shut down. According to the American Astronomical Society, some cuts would include projects that help us understand the sun's effects on global communications, a potential national security threat. Casey Dreier, the policy advocate for the Pasadena-based Planetary Society, says, 'This is an extinction-level event for the Earth- and space-science communities, upending decades of work and tens of billions in taxpayers' investment.' In addition, NASA as a whole would see a 20% cut — just as we are moving forward with the Artemis program. Artemis is NASA's step-by-step 'Moon to Mars' human spaceflight campaign. Artemis II is set to launch sometime next year and will send four astronauts on a lunar fly-by, the first time humans have been in close proximity to another celestial body in more than 50 years. While it seems likely that Artemis will continue in some fashion, a 20% overall agency budget cut won't leave any part of NASA unaffected. The president promised a 'golden age of America'; his nominee to head NASA promised a 'golden age of science and discovery.' This would be a return to the dark ages. Taking a blowtorch to space science would also have little effect on the federal budget while setting back American leadership in space — and the inspiration it provides across political divides — by generations. The Astronomical Society warns that our cutbacks will outsource talent 'to other countries that are increasing their investments in facilities and workforce development.' And, as Dreier points out, spacecraft would be 'left to tumble aimlessly in space' and billions wasted that have already been spent. 'Thousands of bright students across the country,' he wrote recently, 'would be denied careers in science and engineering absent the fellowships and research funds to support them.' Here's the dollars-and-cents context. NASA's budget since the 1970s 'hovers' between 1% and 0.4% of the federal discretionary spending, according to the Planetary Society's analysis, yet for every dollar spent, NASA generates $3 in the national economy. NASA's giveback was worth nearly $76 billion in economic impact in 2023, supporting more than 300,000 jobs. In California alone, NASA and its associated partners in industry and academia provide more than 66,000 jobs, more than $18 billion in economic activity and $1 billion in state tax revenue. NASA's bang-for-the-buck is astronomical, pun intended. Cutting waste is one thing. Evisceration is another. When it comes to science — from public health to climate change — the current administration is doing the latter, not the former. Meanwhile, China continues its space ambitions, with plans for a human lunar campaign and its own 'sample return' mission to the Red Planet. For now, fortunately, the bipartisan support for NASA seems to be holding. Democrats and Republicans in Congress, led by the Planetary Science Caucus, have spoken out against this attack on NASA. And the Planetary Society has engaged thousands of passionate activists to fight this battle. Humans yearn for connection to the universe — so we watch launches on social media, we follow the tracks of rovers on Mars and we marvel at creation in pictures transmitted from the James Webb Space Telescope. We borrow telescopes from the public library and look to the heavens. Bending metal — the actual process of making rovers and spaceships and telescopes — drives economic activity. Fascinating results — the data from space science missions — fires the imagination. We choose to go to space — sending humans and probes — and we pursue knowledge because curiosity is our evolutionary heritage. We explore other worlds to know them and, in doing so, we discover more about ourselves. If you agree, let Congress know. That may be the only backstop against dumbly going where no budget has gone before.
