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The Roman Space
Telescope
Planned to launch in the
mid-2020s, Roman’s namesake
space-based telescope will focus
on near-infrared wavelengths
across both hemispheres of the
sky. Its 2.4-meter mirror, similar
in size to Hubble’s, will have a
300-megapixel camera capable
of achieving 0.1-arcsecond
resolution across the telescope’s
massive 0.28-square-degree field
of view. Roman will produce
1.3 terabytes of data each day
from its roughly elliptical orbit
around the second Lagrange
point in Earth’s orbit — one of
five gravitationally stable points
in the Earth-Sun system.
The telescope will also carry
an innovative coronagraph capa-
ble of blocking the overpowering
light of distant target stars to spot
the dim, otherwise invisible exo-
planets around them. This coro-
nagraph will use two medal-sized
mirrors, each with 2,000 tiny
pistons making constant adjust-
ments to keep their surfaces
within specs. Engineers expect
the instrument to be 1,000 times
more sensitive than existing
coronagraphs, able to detect exo-
planets between 20 million and
1 billion times fainter than their
host star, as long as they appear
more than 0.15" apart on the sky.
That’s akin to detecting a firef ly
hovering near a lighthouse from
1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers)
away.
Facing barriers
Female scientists have long faced
adversity. Like their counterparts
in other disciplines, women in
astronomy have endured dis-
crimination, gross pay inequities,
ridicule, and the indignity of
seeing their own research garner
accolades for male colleagues.
Nonetheless, Rubin and Roman
pressed on in a field that was rife
with sexism before the term had
even been coined. (According
to Merriam-Webster, the first
known use of sexism with its cur-
rent definition was in 1963.)
Rubin’s parents nurtured her
early interests in astronomy and
music. Her father, an electrical
engineer, helped her build herown telescope in her teens.
Roman’s father, a geophysicist,
likewise encouraged his daughter’s
passion for astronomy and math,
while her mother stoked Roman’s
imagination with nighttime walks
to marvel at the northern lights
and constellations.
After high school, the realities
of male-dominated science began
to encroach for both. Born in
1925 (three years before Rubin),
Roman applied to college first and
was accepted at Swarthmore
College. Upon failing to convince
Roman not to major in science,
the college’s dean of women had
nothing more to do with her for
the next four years, Roman wrote.
Rubin later applied to study
astronomy at the same school,
but they declined her application
and suggested she find a more
ladylike career. She went instead
to Vassar College in 1945, where
Maria Mitchell, America’s first
female astronomer, had taught
75 years earlier. Rubin aced her
classes and graduated a year early,
marrying straight out of school.
She applied to Princeton
University next, but they sum-
marily rejected her — it would be
decades before they admitted any
woman at all. In 1948, Rubin and
her husband, Robert, went insteadABOVE: Formerly the
Wide Field Infrared
Survey Telescope,
or WFIRST, the
Nancy Grace Roman
Space Telescope’s
capabilities include
a field of view 100
times larger than
Hubble’s, as well
as an advanced
coronagraph that will
allow it to block
starlight and see dim
exoplanets circling
their suns. GSFC/SVSLEFT: A technician
stands with the
Roman Space
Telescope’s
2.4-meter primary
mirror. Despite the
similarity in size,
Roman’s primary
weighs less than
one-fourth as much
as Hubble’s, thanks
to improvements
in materials and
technology since
the latter was
constructed.
L3HARRIS TECHNOLOGIES