Huge simulated survey shows what we can expect from NASA's next powerful space telescope

A new survey provides insight into NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope's forthcoming observations. Although this simulation is only a fraction of the actual survey that will be conducted in the future, it comprises an astounding 33 million galaxies and 200,000 foreground stars in our Milky Way galaxy.

Planned to launch in May 2027, the Roman telescope will aid in uncovering the enigmas surrounding dark matter and dark energy, capture images and locate exoplanets - planets outside our solar system - and will help us solve some of the most profound mysteries in astrophysics.

"The volume of data Roman will return is unprecedented for a space telescope. Our simulation is a testing ground we can use to make sure we will get the most out of the mission's observations," said Michael Troxel, an assistant professor of physics at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina.

For this synthetic Roman survey, the team drew data from a mock universe originally developed to support science planning with the Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile. According to NASA, this survey covers 20 square degrees of the sky, which is roughly equivalent to 95 full moons, whereas the actual survey will be 100 times larger, unveiling more than a billion galaxies. Rubin, on the other hand, will survey an even more extensive region - spanning 18,000 square degrees, which is nearly half of the full sky - but with lower resolution.

According to NASA, the Roman telescope will be able to map the universe up to a thousand times faster than Hubble Space Telescope or the James Webb Space Telescope. Its large field of view will allow astronomers to accomplish far more than the survey's primary goals.

Scientists have created a synthetic survey to show what to expect from @NASARoman’s observations. Just a small chunk of the real future survey, this simulated version contains 33 million galaxies, along with 200,000 foreground stars in our home galaxy.👀 https://t.co/kWWSz9bWeF pic.twitter.com/MpRMYRZggb

— NASA Exoplanets (@NASAExoplanets) March 10, 2023