Winston
Lorenzo von Matterhorn
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NASA's next major telescope to see the big picture of the universe
December 22, 2017
https://phys.org/news/2017-12-nasa-major-telescope-big-picture.html
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.
WFIRST's microlensing survey will monitor 100 million stars for hundreds of days and is expected to find about 2,500 planets, with significant numbers of rocky planets in and beyond the region where liquid water may exist. This planet-detection method is sensitive enough to find planets smaller than Mars, and will reveal planets orbiting their host stars at distances ranging from closer than Venus to beyond Pluto.
These results will make WFIRST an ideal companion to missions like NASA's Kepler and the upcoming Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), which are best suited to find 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, helping us learn how planets form and migrate into systems like our own. The combined data from these missions provide insight into planets in the critical area known as the habitable zone, the orbiting distance from a host star that would permit a planet's surface to harbor liquid waterand potentially life.
WFIRST will also feature a coronagraph technology demonstration instrument designed to directly image exoplanets by blocking out a star's light, allowing the much fainter planets to be observed. As NASA's first advanced coronagraph in space, it will be 1,000 times more capable than any previously flown. This is a key step toward future direct imaging missions that will study truly Earth-like planets discovered nearby. The instrument will be able to image gas giant planets orbiting mature Sun-like stars, allowing scientists to study them in ways that haven't been possible before. Scientists are hoping to use the coronagraph to determine important properties about these planets, such as their atmospheric composition.
[video=youtube;K8nGuAsLR0U]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8nGuAsLR0U[/video]
December 22, 2017
https://phys.org/news/2017-12-nasa-major-telescope-big-picture.html
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.
WFIRST's microlensing survey will monitor 100 million stars for hundreds of days and is expected to find about 2,500 planets, with significant numbers of rocky planets in and beyond the region where liquid water may exist. This planet-detection method is sensitive enough to find planets smaller than Mars, and will reveal planets orbiting their host stars at distances ranging from closer than Venus to beyond Pluto.
These results will make WFIRST an ideal companion to missions like NASA's Kepler and the upcoming Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), which are best suited to find 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, helping us learn how planets form and migrate into systems like our own. The combined data from these missions provide insight into planets in the critical area known as the habitable zone, the orbiting distance from a host star that would permit a planet's surface to harbor liquid waterand potentially life.
WFIRST will also feature a coronagraph technology demonstration instrument designed to directly image exoplanets by blocking out a star's light, allowing the much fainter planets to be observed. As NASA's first advanced coronagraph in space, it will be 1,000 times more capable than any previously flown. This is a key step toward future direct imaging missions that will study truly Earth-like planets discovered nearby. The instrument will be able to image gas giant planets orbiting mature Sun-like stars, allowing scientists to study them in ways that haven't been possible before. Scientists are hoping to use the coronagraph to determine important properties about these planets, such as their atmospheric composition.
[video=youtube;K8nGuAsLR0U]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8nGuAsLR0U[/video]
