Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope

Jennifer Wiseman & Julie McEnery, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center NASA recently announced that its next-generation space telescope, formerly called the Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST), has been named in honor of Dr. Nancy Grace Roman. As NASA’s first Chief Astronomer, Dr. Roman paved the way for space telescopes focused on the broader universe. She is credited with making the Hubble Space Telescope a reality, leading to her nickname as the "mother of Hubble." When it launches in the mid-2020s, NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will create enormous space panoramas of unprecedented detail. The mission’s wide field of view will enable scientists to conduct sweeping cosmic surveys, yielding a wealth of information about celestial realms from our solar system to the edge of the observable universe. Roman will survey the sky in infrared light, which is invisible to human eyes. It will have the same resolution in near-infrared wavelengths as NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, but will capture a field of view about 100 times larger. Roman’s surveys will deliver new insights into the history and structure of the universe, including the mysterious "dark energy" that is making space itself expand faster and faster. This powerful new observatory will also build on the broad foundation of work begun with Hubble and other observatories on planets outside our solar system. It will discover thousands of exoplanets using its wide-field camera and study the atmospheres of giant gaseous planets orbiting other stars with a sophisticated technology demonstration coronagraph. Host: Frank Summers, Space Telescope Science Institute Recorded live on Tuesday, October 6, 2020 More information: www.stsci.edu/public-lectures

When a new NASA space telescope opens its eyes in the mid 2020s, it will peer at the universe through some of the most sophisticated sunglasses ever designed. This multi-layered technology, the coronagraph instrument, might more rightly be called "starglasses": a system of masks, prisms, detectors and even self-flexing mirrors built to block out the glare from distant stars -- and reveal the planets in orbit around them. Normally, that glare is overwhelming, blotting out any chance of seeing orbiting planets. The star's photons -- particles of light -- swamp those from the planet when they hit the telescope. WFIRST's coronagraph just completed a major milestone: a preliminary design review by NASA. The instrument has met all design, schedule and budget requirements, and can now proceed to the next phase, b uilding hardware for flight. The WFIRST mission's coronagraph is meant to demonstrate the power of increasingly advanced technology. As it captures light directly from large, gaseous exoplanets, and from disks of dust and gas surrounding other stars, it will point the way to the future: single pixel "images" of rocky planets the size of Earth. Then the light can be spread into a rainbow spectrum, revealing which gases are present in the planet's atmosphere -- perhaps oxygen, methane, carbon dioxide, and maybe even signs of life. The two flexible mirrors inside the coronagraph are key components. As light that has traveled tens of light-years from an exoplanet enters the telescope, thousands of actuators move like pistons, changing the shape of the mirrors in real time. The flexing of these "deformable mirrors" compensates for tiny flaws and changes in the telescope's optics. Changes on the mirrors' surfaces are so precise they can compensate for errors smalle r than the width of a strand of DNA. These mirrors, in tandem with high-tech "masks," another major advance, squelch the star's diffraction as well - the bending of light waves around the edges of light-blocking elements inside the coronagraph. The result: blinding starlight is sharply dimmed, and faintly glowing, previously hidden planets appear. The star-dimming technology also could bring the clearest-ever images of distant star systems' formative years -- when they are still swaddled in disks of dust and gas as infant planets take shape inside. The instrument's deformable mirrors and other advanced technology -- known as "active wavefront control" -- should mean a leap of 100 to 1,000 times the capability of previous coronagraphs. Music: "Concept of Motion" from Universe Production Music Based in part on the video by Nick Siegler: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkTHuqiH_1Y Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center Scott Wiessinger (USRA): Lead Producer Francis Reddy (University of Maryland College Park): Science Writer Neil Gehrels (NASA/GSFC): Scientist Krystofer Kim (USRA): Lead Animator Claire Andreoli (NASA/GSFC): Lead Public Affairs Officer This video is public domain and along with other supporting visualizations can be downloaded from the Scientific Visualization Studio at: http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/13325 If you liked this video, subscribe to the NASA Goddard YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/NASAExplorer Follow NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center · Instagram http://www.instagram.com/nasagoddard · Twitter http://twitter.com/NASAGoddard · Twitter http://twitter.com/NASAGoddardPix · Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/NASA.GSFC · Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/gsfc

On schedule to launch in the mid-2020s, NASA’s Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST) mission will help uncover some of the biggest mysteries in the cosmos. The state-of-the-art telescope on the WFIRST spacecraft will play a significant role in this, providing the largest picture of the universe ever seen with the same depth and precision as the Hubble Space Telescope. The telescope for WFIRST has successfully passed its preliminary design review, a major milestone for the mission. This means the telescope has met the performance, schedule, and budget requirements to advance to the next stage of development, where the team will finalize its design. WFIRST is a high-precision survey mission that will advance our understanding of fundamental physics. WFIRST is similar to other space telescopes, like Spitzer and the James Webb Space Telescope, in that it will detect infrared light, which is invisible to human eyes. Earth’s atmosphere absorbs infrared light, which presents challenges for observatories on the ground. WFIRST has the advantage of flying in space, above the atmosphere. The WFIRST telescope will collect and focus light using a primary mirror that is 2.4 meters in diameter. While it’s the same size as the Hubble Space Telescope’s main mirror, it is only one-fourth the weight, showcasing an impressive improvement in telescope technology. The mirror gathers light and sends it on to a pair of science instruments. The spacecraft’s giant camera, the Wide Field Instrument (WFI), will enable astronomers to map the presence of mysterious dark matter, which is known only through its gravitational effects on normal matter. The WFI will also help scientists investigate the equally mysterious "dark energy," which causes the universe's expansion to accelerate. Whatever its nature, dark energy may hold the key to understanding the fate of the cosmos. In addition, the WFI will survey our own galaxy to further our understanding of what planets orbit other stars, using the telescope’s ability to sense both smaller planets and more distant planets than any survey before (planets orbiting stars beyond our Sun are called "exoplanets"). This survey will help determine whether our solar system is common, unusual, or nearly unique in the galaxy. The WFI will have the same resolution as Hubble, yet has a field of view that is 100 times greater, combining excellent image quality with the power to conduct large surveys that would take Hubble hundreds of years to complete. WFIRST’s Coronagraph Instrument (CGI) will directly image exoplanets by blocking out the light of their host stars. To date, astronomers have directly imaged only a small fraction of exoplanets, so WFIRST’s advanced techniques will expand our inventory and enable us to learn more about them. Results from the CGI will provide the first opportunity to observe and characterize exoplanets similar to those in our solar system, located between three and 10 times Earth’s distance from the Sun, or from about midway to Jupiter to about the distance of Saturn in our solar system. Studying the physical properties of exoplanets that are more similar to Earth will take us a step closer to discovering habitable planets. Music credit: “Phenomenon" from Above and Below Written and produced by Lars Leonhard Read more: https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2019/telescope-for-nasa-s-wfirst-mission-advances-to-new-phase-of-development Credits: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/Scott Wiessinger (USRA): Lead Producer Michael Lentz (USRA): Lead Animator Claire Andreoli (NASA/GSFC): Lead Public Affairs Officer Francis Reddy (University of Maryland College Park): Science Writer Ashley Balzer (GSFC Interns): Writer Scott Wiessinger (USRA): Narrator Scott Wiessinger (USRA): Editor [insert full credits here as they appear on the SVS page] This video is public domain and along with other supporting visualizations can be downloaded from the Scientific Visualization Studio at: http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/13295 If you liked this video, subscribe to the NASA Goddard YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/NASAExplorer Follow NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center · Instagram http://www.instagram.com/nasagoddard · Twitter http://twitter.com/NASAGoddard · Twitter http://twitter.com/NASAGoddardPix · Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/NASA.GSFC · Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/gsfc

In this week's QA, I answer why space telescopes aren't a waste of taxpayer resources, if ground-based space telescopes will become obsolete, and whether it makes sense to crash phobos into Mars. 00:18 Waste of taxpayer money? 02:14 Will ground-based telescopes become obsolete? 03:50 Crash Phobos into Mars 04:56 Should NASA collaborate with China? 05:45 Entanglement to communicate faster than light? 08:09 Crop circles 08:36 Problem with wearing a weight suit in zero gravity 09:55 Methane rocket emissions 10:57 Why does Titan have an atmosphere? 11:51 Harvest energy from neutrinos Our Book is out! https://www.amazon.com/Universe-Today-Ultimate-Viewing-Cosmos/dp/1624145442/ Audio Podcast version: ITunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/universe-today-guide-to-space-audio/id794058155?mt=2 RSS: https://www.universetoday.com/audio What Fraser's Watching Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLbJ42wpShvmkjd428BcHcCEVWOjv7cJ1G Weekly email newsletter: https://www.universetoday.com/newsletter Weekly Space Hangout: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0-KklSGlCiJDwOPdR2EUcg/ Astronomy Cast: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUHI67dh9jEO2rvK--MdCSg Support us at: http://www.patreon.com/universetoday More stories at: http://www.universetoday.com/ Twitch: https://twitch.tv/fcain Follow us on Twitter: @universetoday Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/universetoday Instagram - https://instagram.com/universetoday Team: Fraser Cain - @fcain / [email protected] Karla Thompson - @karlaii / https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEItkORQYd4Wf0TpgYI_1fw Chad Weber - [email protected]

In order to know how the universe will end, we must know what has happened to it so far. This is just one mystery NASA's forthcoming Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST) mission will tackle as it explores the distant cosmos. The spacecraft's giant camera, the Wide Field Instrument (WFI), will be fundamental to this exploration. The WFI has just passed its preliminary design review, an important milestone for the mission. It means the WFI successfully met the design, schedule and budget requirements to advance to the next phase of development, where the team will begin detailed design and fabrication of the flight hardware. WFIRST is a next-generation space telescope that will survey the infrared universe from beyond the orbit of the Moon. Its two instruments are a technology demonstration called a coronagraph, and the WFI. The WFI features the same angular resolution as Hubble but with 100 times the field of view. Data it gathers will enable scientists to discover new and uniquely detailed information about planetary systems around other stars. The WFI will also map how matter is structured and distributed throughout the cosmos, which should ultimately allow scientists to discover the fate of the universe. The WFI is designed to detect faint infrared light from across the universe. Infrared light is observed at wavelengths longer than the human eye can detect. The expansion of the universe stretches light emitted by distant galaxies, causing visible or ultraviolet light to appear as infrared by the time it reaches us. Such distant galaxies are difficult to observe from the ground because Earth's atmosphere blocks some infrared wavelengths, and the upper atmosphere glows brightly enough to overwhelm light from these distant galaxies. By going into space and using a Hubble-size telescope, the WFI will be sensitive enough to detect infrared light from farther than any previous telescope. This will help scientists capture a new view of the universe that could help solve some of its biggest mysteries, one of which is how the universe became the way it is now. The WFI will allow scientists to peer very far back in time. Seeing the universe in its early stages will help scientists unravel how it expanded throughout its history. This will illuminate how the cosmos developed to its present condition, enabling scientists to predict how it will continue to evolve. With its large field of view, the WFI will provide a wealth of information in each image it takes. This will dramatically reduce the amount of time needed to gather data, allowing scientists to conduct research that would otherwise be impractical. With the successful completion of the WFI's preliminary design review, the WFIRST mission is on target for its planned launch in the mid-2020s. Scientists will soon be able to explore some of the biggest mysteries in the cosmos thanks to the WFI's wide field of view and precision optics. Credits: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/Scott Wiessinger (USRA) - Claire Saravia: Public Affairs Officer - Krystofer Kim (USRA): Animator - Ashley Balzer: Science Writer Music" "Horizon Ahead" from Killer Tracks Read more: [link] This video is public domain and along with other supporting visualizations can be downloaded from the Scientific Visualization Studio at: http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/13235 If you liked this video, subscribe to the NASA Goddard YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/NASAExplorer Follow NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center · Instagram http://www.instagram.com/nasagoddard · Twitter http://twitter.com/NASAGoddard · Twitter http://twitter.com/NASAGoddardPix · Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/NASA.GSFC · Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/gsfc

Dan Scolnic, a Duke Assistant Professor of Physics, visited Washington D.C. to meet with Congressional leaders and advocate for funding of the Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope, known as WFIRST. Through his research, Scolnic believes WFIRST will answer big scientific questions including what makes up the universe.

Get 20% off a premium subscription to Brilliant at http://www.brilliant.org/answerswithjoe In the next decade, a handful of new mega telescopes, both space-based and ground-based, are poised to answer some of the biggest questions in science. My video on the James Webb Space Telescope: https://youtu.be/G4LjhjHUXO4 Support me on Patreon! http://www.patreon.com/answerswithjoe Get cool nerdy t-shirts at http://www.answerswithjoe.com/shirts Interested in getting a Tesla? Use my referral link and get discounts and perks: https://ts.la/joe74700 Become a channel member and get access to exclusive livestreams and content here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-2YHgc363EdcusLIBbgxzg/join Follow me at all my places! Instagram: https://instagram.com/answerswithjoe Snapchat: https://www.snapchat.com/add/answerswithjoe Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/answerswithjoe Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/answerswithjoe The Hubble Space Telescope was just the most recent advancement in telescope technology that opened up the universe to us in ways we could have never imagined. But Hubble's abilities are soon to be eclipsed by several space and ground-based telescopes with bigger mirrors and data collection and analysis than the world has ever seen. James Webb Space Telescope The successor to Hubble, the James Webb will feature a 6.4 meter mirror, dwarfing the 2 meter mirror on Hubble. It will focus on the infrared spectrum and will see further into the past than ever before. It's currently scheduled to launch in 2021, but has been delayed multiple times. WFIRST The Wide Field Infra Red Survey Telescope will have the same resolution as Hubble, but will be able to image 100x more of the sky at once. The plan was to use it in conjunction with the James Webb to find interesting targets. It is in danger of being cancelled later this year. LUVOIR The Large UV/Optical/Infrared Telescope would have a mirror between 8 and 16 meters wide and will collect light in all wavelengths. This is a massive space telescope that is too big for any current rockets, though could be carried up on the SLS, New Glenn, or SpaceX Starship. Thirty Meter Telescope This massive ground-based telescope has faced numerous delays due to native Hawaiians protesting it being built on Mauna Kea, which they consider sacred land. This telescope would have 20x the power of Hubble. Extremely Large Telescope Currently being built in the Atacama desert of Chile, this 39-meter wide mirror will focus on the infrared spectrum and should answer some of the biggest questions about universal expansion. Large Magellan Telescope Constructed out of 7 8-meter wide mirrors - the largest in the entire world - this telescope is the simplest of the telescopes, which should allow for optimal optics. FAST This Chinese radio telescope took the prize from Arecibo in Puerto Rico as the largest telescope in the world, and even though they're still calibrating it, it has already discovered dozens of pulsars. Large Synoptic Survey Telescope While not impressively huge, the LSST is exciting because of how it will be used - to scan the entire sky every 3 days. Over 10 years, the amount of data this telescope will produce will equal 50 petabytes and could help find new planetary objects in our own solar system. LINKS LINKS LINKS: https://www.outerplaces.com/science/item/18445-astronomy-too-much-data https://www.space.com/21925-james-webb-space-telescope-jwst.html https://spacenews.com/wfirst-faces-funding-crunch/ https://asd.gsfc.nasa.gov/luvoir/design/ Thirty Meter Telescope: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4NmNOlFgOo https://www.eso.org/public/usa/announcements/ann17087/ https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/arizona-education/2017/11/13/university-of-arizona-worlds-largest-telescope-mirrors/840730001/ https://dailygalaxy.com/2019/01/odd-signals-inside-story-of-chinas-search-for-alien-life/ http://discovermagazine.com/2016/oct/to-planet-9

WASHINGTON D.C. — NASA's Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope, or WFIRST, is a future flagship mission planned to make new observations about our universe, according to a new study published in The Astrophysical Journal. SOURCES:News Atlas, Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series, The Ohio State University, Forbes, https://newatlas.com/future-nasa-telescope-wfirst-1400-new-exoplanets/58649/ https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-4365/aafb69/meta https://news.osu.edu/new-nasa-mission-could-find-more-than-1000-planets/ https://www.forbes.com/sites/jamiecartereurope/2019/02/26/the-nasa-space-telescope-the-trump-administration-tried-to-kill-will-find-1400-new-planets/#5119f45e406e Our favorite VPN: Private Internet Access ►►http://bit.ly/TomoNewsVPN Stuff we use to make TomoNews ►►https://www.amazon.com/shop/tomonewsus TomoNews is your best source for real news. We cover the funniest, craziest and most talked-about stories on the internet. If you’re laughing, we’re laughing. If you’re outraged, we’re outraged. We tell it like it is. And because we can animate stories, TomoNews brings you news like you’ve never seen before. Top TomoNews Stories - The most popular videos on TomoNews! http://bit.ly/Top_TomoNews_Stories You Idiot! - People doing stupid things http://bit.ly/You-Idiot Recent Uploads - The latest stories brought to you by TomoNews http://bit.ly/Latest-TomoNews Ultimate TomoNews Compilations - Can't get enough of TomoNews? This playlist is for you! New videos every day http://bit.ly/Ulitmate_TomoNews_Compi... Thanks for watching TomoNews! Like TomoNews on Facebook ►► http://www.facebook.com/TomoNewsUS Follow us on Twitter ►► @tomonewsus http://www.twitter.com/TomoNewsUS Follow us on Instagram ►► @tomonewsus http://instagram.com/tomonewsus Subscribe to TomoNews ►► http://bit.ly/Subscribe-to-TomoNews Watch more TomoNews ►► http://bit.ly/MoreTomoNews Visit our website for all the latest videos: http://us.tomonews.com Check out our Android app: http://bit.ly/1rddhCj Check out our iOS app: http://bit.ly/1gO3z1f Get top stories delivered to your inbox every day: http://bit.ly/tomo-newsletter

What should we expect from the next generation of space telescopes? What key scientific questions will they help answer? Do we have the technology we need to operate them in 20-30 years? To address these issues, NASA selected four large space mission concepts to study and consider as possible future Large Strategic Science Missions. Of the NASA astrophysics division missions, these tend to be the most expensive, but also have the greatest capacity. Three of those space telescopes got the attention of the SETI Institute because of their potential to answer the question, “Are We Alone?” The Origins Space Telescope (Origins) is a large cooled infrared space telescope with higher sensitivity and better angular resolution than any prior observatory accessing similar wavelengths. Among its many science objectives covering the first stars to life, Origins could help scientists understand the abundance and availability of water for habitable planets and could look forbiosignatures on potentially habitable worlds transiting low-mass stars. The Large UV Optical Infrared Surveyor (or LUVOIR) is a general-purpose observatory; its key science goal is to characterize a wide range of exoplanets, including those that might be habitable and orbiting a range of stellar types. The Habitable Exoplanet Imaging Mission (HabEx) is a space telescope, optimized to search for and image Earth-sized exoplanets in the habitable zones around sun-like stars, where liquid water might exist. HabEx would also have a suite of general astrophysics science capabilities. Each of these concepts has pros and cons, as well as other technological, cost, and risk challenges. These mission concepts will be described in detail in their final study reports, which will be delivered to the National Academy of Sciences for the Astro 2020 Decadal Survey later this year. It is still unknown whether the Decadal Survey will prioritize none, one, or even all of these concepts, but the several hundred scientists and engineers involved in these mission concept studies for the past three years are confident that we are now capable of building these telescopes, and that the science that they can deliver will be compelling and change again our view of the cosmos, just as the Hubble Space Telescope has done for the past 3 decades. We invited three scientists directly involved in each one of the three teams above to discuss these exciting future mission projects. During this SETI Talk, they will describe their projects, and tell us more about the challenges and the processes that could make these missions a reality: Prof. Courtney Dressing, astronomer and member of the LUVOIR Science and Technology Definition Team (STDT), whose research aims to detect and characterize planetary systems orbiting nearby stars. Dr. Kimberly Ennico Smith, a NASA research astrophysicist who is multidisciplinary in her approach to space instruments, telescopes, and mission concepts. She is a member of the STDT of OST. Prof. Scott Gaudi, astronomer and community chair of the HabEx STDT, who bridges the gap between theory and observations, with extensive experience in leadership roles and consensus-building, as well as experience with several exoplanet detection methods and exoplanet surveys.

WFIRST is a space telescope intended to settle some of the most enduring mysteries of the universe -- dark energy, dark matter, exoplanets and undiscovered galaxies. https://www.harris.com/what-we-do/universe-exploration https://wfirst.gsfc.nasa.gov/ https://aura-wfirst.org/

In October 2018, NASA scientist Jason Rhodes visited AAAS to talk about development of the WFIRST telescope. This Hubble-class telescope is scheduled for release in the mid-2020s. It will be a 2.4 meter infrared telescope with 100 times Hubble's field of view. Among its other goals, it will investigate one of the most baffling questions in astronomy: the mysterious force called dark energy that permeates all of space. It will also search for and study exoplanets, planets beyond our solar system. In his lecture at AAAS, Rhodes gave an overview of WFIRST's proposed instrumentation, science goals, and implementation plan. Rhodes is a Senior Research Scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and the JPL project scientist for WFIRST.

Consider supporting Space Fan News: https://patreon.com/DeepAstronomy to ensure you get current space & astronomy news each week! In this episode, we’ve all heard about the delays and cost overruns of NASA’s flagship observatory, the James Webb Space Telescope. It is over budget by a lot and over a decade late from its original scheduled launch date. But will congress approve the increase? What impact will these delays have on everything else NASA is trying to do? Well on casualty may be WFIRST, the follow on project to JWST. Space Fan News Theme by Stephen Dubois available for download here: http://ancienteyesmusic.com Space Fan News Background Music by Colour the Landscapes: https://colourthelandscapes.bandcamp.com/ Cool DA T-shirts: https://sfsf.shop/support-deepastronomy/

The Hubble Space Telescope has been in space for 28 years, producing some of the most beautiful and scientifically important images of the cosmos that humanity has ever taken. But let’s face it, Hubble is getting old, and it probably won’t be with us for too much longer. NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope is in the final stages of testing, and WFIRST is waiting in the wings. You’ll be glad to know there are even more space telescopes in the works, a set of four powerful instruments in design right now, which will be part of the next Decadal Survey, and helping to answer the most fundamental questions about the cosmos. Audio Podcast version: ITunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/universe-today-guide-to-space-audio/id794058155?mt=2 RSS: https://www.universetoday.com/audio Video Podcast version: ITunes: https://itunes.apple.com/bh/podcast/universe-today-video/id794057165?mt=2 RSS: https://www.universetoday.com/video What Fraser's Watching Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLbJ42wpShvmkjd428BcHcCEVWOjv7cJ1G Weekly email newsletter: https://www.universetoday.com/newsletter Support us at: http://www.patreon.com/universetoday More stories at: http://www.universetoday.com/ Follow us on Twitter: @universetoday Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/universetoday Google+ - https://plus.google.com/+universetoday/ Instagram - http://instagram.com/universetoday Team: Fraser Cain - @fcain / [email protected] Karla Thompson - @karlaii / https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEItkORQYd4Wf0TpgYI_1fw Chad Weber - [email protected] Chloe Cain - Instagram: @chloegwen2001 References: https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/system/downloadable_items/784_Planetary_Science_Decadal_2013-2022.pdf https://exoplanets.nasa.gov/resources/2130/coronagraph-explanation-2-minutes/ http://www.eso.org/public/news/eso1417/ https://exoplanets.nasa.gov/news/1407/new-planet-imager-delivers-first-science/ https://exoplanets.nasa.gov/news/1404/a-four-planet-system-in-orbit-directly-imaged-and-remarkable/ https://exoplanets.nasa.gov/resources/1015/flower-power-nasa-reveals-spring-starshade-animation/ https://wwwastro.msfc.nasa.gov/lynx/ http://sci.esa.int/cosmic-vision/55111-the-hot-and-energetic-universe/ https://asd.gsfc.nasa.gov/firs/ https://asd.gsfc.nasa.gov/luvoir/

Our everyday experience with gravity is that of an attractive force: it pulls things closer. But weve discovered a very peculiar property about our expanding universe: the expansion is accelerat. NASA officially is beginning work on an astrophysics mission designed to help unlock the secrets of the universe -- the Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST). With a view 100 times. Scheduled to launch in the mid-2020s, the Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST) will function as Hubbles wide-eyed cousin. While just as sensitive as Hubbles cameras, WFIRSTs 300-megap.

Stanford University APPLIED PHYSICS/PHYSICS COLLOQUIUM Tuesday, March 13, 2018 4:30 p.m. on campus in Hewlett Teaching Center, Rm. 201 David Spergel Princeton University “The Search for Dark Energy and NASA’s WFIRST mission” Over the last twenty years, there has been growing evidence that our universe is dominated by dark energy. The nature of this dark energy remains a mystery. Is it the signature of the breakdown of general relativity or vacuum energy associated with quantum gravity? I will review the current observations and note the intriguing tensions between measurements based on the cosmic microwave background (CMB) and local measurements of the expansion rate of the universe and the amplitude of density fluctuations. I will then discuss on-going and upcoming CMB experiments and the role of the WFIRST mission in studying the nature of dark energy. I will also discuss the broader scientific mission of the WFIRST mission and its current status.

The budget proposal for NASA in 2019 calls for elimination to several Earth Science programs: Radiation Budget Instrument (RBI); Plankton; Aerosol; Cloud; ocean Ecosystem (PACE); Orbiting Carbon Observatory-3 (OCO-3); Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) Earth-viewing instruments; Climate Absolute Radiance and Refractivity Observatory (CLARREO) Pathfinder. Also, it calls for the elimination of the Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST), which could deliver the 'equivalent detail' of 100 Hubble Pictures. - Read more: https://www.space.com/39670-trump-nasa-2019-budget-cancels-wfirst-earth-science.html Lastly, the termination of NASA's Office of Education. Funding would be directed into human exploration ventures such as the Moon and Mars. -- Full White House budget proposal document: https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/msar-fy2019.pdf Credit: NASA

Scheduled to launch in the mid-2020s, the Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST) will function as Hubble’s wide-eyed cousin. While just as sensitive as Hubble's cameras, WFIRST's 300-megapixel Wide Field Instrument will image a sky area 100 times larger. This means a single WFIRST image will hold the equivalent detail of 100 pictures from Hubble. The mission’s wide field of view will allow it to generate a never-before-seen big picture of the universe, which will help astronomers explore some of the greatest mysteries of the cosmos, like why the expansion of the universe seems to be accelerating. Some scientists attribute the speed-up to dark energy, an unexplained pressure that makes up 68 percent of the total content of the cosmos. The Wide Field Instrument will also allow WFIRST to measure the matter in hundreds of millions of distant galaxies through a phenomenon dictated by Einstein’s relativity theory. Massive objects like galaxies curve space-time in a way that bends light passing near them, creating a distorted, magnified view of far-off galaxies behind them. WFIRST will paint a broad picture of how matter is structured throughout the universe, allowing scientists to put the governing physics of its assembly to the ultimate test. WFIRST can use this same light-bending phenomenon to study planets beyond our solar system, known as exoplanets. In a process called microlensing, a foreground star in our galaxy acts as the lens. When its motion randomly aligns with a distant background star, the lens magnifies, brightens and distorts the background star. WFIRST's microlensing survey will monitor 100 million stars for hundreds of days and is expected to find about 2,500 planets, well targeted at rocky planets in and beyond the region where liquid water may exist. These results will make WFIRST an ideal companion to missions like NASA's Kepler and the upcoming Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), which are designed to study larger planets orbiting closer to their host stars. Together, discoveries from these three missions will help complete the census of planets beyond our solar system. The combined data will also overlap in a critical area known as the habitable zone, the orbiting distance from a host star that would permit a planet's surface to harbor liquid water — and potentially life. By pioneering an array of innovative technologies, WFIRST will serve as a multipurpose mission, formulating a big picture of the universe and helping us answer some of the most profound questions in astrophysics, such as how the universe evolved into what we see today, its ultimate fate and whether we are alone. This video is public domain and along with other supporting visualizations can be downloaded from the Scientific Visualization Studio at: http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/12238 Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/Scott Wiessinger If you liked this video, subscribe to the NASA Goddard YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/NASAExplorer Follow NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center · Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/NASA.GSFC · Twitter http://twitter.com/NASAGoddard · Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/gsfc/ · Instagram http://www.instagram.com/nasagoddard/ · Google+ http://plus.google.com/+NASAGoddard/posts

Viewers like you help make PBS (Thank you 😃) . Support your local PBS Member Station here: https://to.pbs.org/DonateSPACE The mysteries of our universe seem limitless. However to unlock them, we’re going to need some incredible technologies to peer deeper and more sharply into space time. You can further support us on Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/pbsspacetime Get your own Space Time t­shirt at http://bit.ly/1QlzoBi Tweet at us! @pbsspacetime Facebook: facebook.com/pbsspacetime Email us! pbsspacetime [at] gmail [dot] com Comment on Reddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/pbsspacetime Help translate our videos! https://www.youtube.com/timedtext_cs_... Previous Episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kL81uuYW9BY&t=40s The Kepler mission has determined that terrestrial planets - that is, rocky planets like our Earth are extremely common, and may orbit most stars in the Milky Way. But these planets are extremely difficult to directly image because they’re dense and small. Our Sun is about ten billion times brighter than Earth. Train a distant telescope on us, and it will be overwhelmed by the Sun’s rays. So how can we find terrestrial planets around stars light years away? Written by Alex Yep and Matt O’Dowd Hosted by Matt O’Dowd Produced by Rusty Ward Graphics by Kurt Ross Assistant Editing and Sound Design by Mike Petrow Made by Kornhaber Brown (www.kornhaberbrown.com) Special thanks to our Patreon Big Bang, Quasar and Hypernova Supporters: Big Bang BITISM CoolAsCats David Nicklas Richard Senegor Quasar Tambe Barsbay Meo Meow Oink Oink Mayank M. Mehrota Mars Yentur Mark Rosenthal Dean Fuqua Hypernova Max Levine Edmund Fokschaner Eugene Lawson Chuck Zegar Jordan Young Ratfeast John Hofmann Joseph Salomone Martha Hunt Craig Peterson Barry Hatfield Matthew O’Connor Thanks to our Patreon Gamma Ray Burst Supporters: Scott Gossett Mark Dykstra Peter Durocher Michael Kers Chris Hicks Mark Vasile Patrick Murray Sultan Alkhulaifi Alex Seto Michal-Peanut Karmi Bernardo Higuera Erik Stein Daniel Lyons Kevin Warne JJ Bagnell J Rejc Amy Jie Avi Goldfinger John Pettit Shannan Catalano Florian Stinglmayr Yubo Du Benoit Pagé-Guitard Nathan Leniz Jessica Fraley Loro Lukic Brandon Labonte David Crane Greg Weiss

presented by Dr. Dan Huber (University of Hawaii) at the 2017 Sagan Summer Workshop

presented by Dr. Ben Montet (University of Chicago) at the 2017 Sagan Summer Workshop