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The Roman Space Telescope (RST, or Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope) is a new 2.4-m near infrared NASA space telescope for dark energy/cosmology and extra-solar planet research, including a coronagraph for exoplanet direct imaging. Mission plans also include significant surveying for gravitational microlensing transients, e.g., to discover difficult to see astronomical objects such as planets including field planets, brown dwarfs, low mass stars, and compact objects. RST was launched on August 30, 2026, and is due to reach its orbit at L2 in December. A 5-year primary mission will follow with potential for extension. Instruments:
Current survey plans include:
Much of the telescope, including the mirror, is a surplus National Reconnaissance Office telescope with the same mirror diameter as HST (2.4 meters) but a shorter focal length, thus a larger field of view. An earlier name of RST was WFIRST, for Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope. The initial (circa 2011) WFIRST proposal specified a new 1.3-meter telescope, and while the current plan was considered as an option, it was specifically termed WFIRST-AFTA (Astrophysics Focused Telescope Assets). WFIRST itself was essentially a rename of the earlier JDEM (Joint Dark Energy Mission) proposal of circa 2005-2010, a mission concept superseding various even earlier dark energy research proposals that included SNAP (Supernova Acceleration Probe), Destiny (Dark Energy Space Telescope), and ADEPT (Advanced Dark Energy Physics Telescope).