In 2027, NASA plans to launch a new infrared space telescope RST (Roman Space Telescope). Like the famous Hubble, it will be equipped with a 2.4-meter mirror that will allow it to take pictures with a similar resolution. At the same time, the device will receive a 288-megapixel wide-angle camera. Thanks to it, it will be able to shoot sections of the sky with an area 200 times larger than the field of view of the Hubble telescope.
Although there are still five years left before the launch of the new telescope, NASA has already launched a campaign aimed at popularizing the RST. As part of this initiative, mission specialists have created an 8-bit game demonstrating the main tasks of the telescope. It is published on the mission’s website. To launch it, just click on the picture with the word Play.
During the game, the participant is given exactly one minute to fix as many celestial bodies and various cosmic phenomena as possible in the field of view of the RST. They include galaxies, supernovae, exoplanets, rogue planets (exoplanets permanently ejected from their home system), black holes and dark matter. The James Webb Space Telescope may also appear in the frame.
All the listed objects (except James Webb) will indeed become one of the main goals of RST. You can pay attention to the fact that the “sight” of the telescope in the game consists of 18 squares. This is due to the fact that its wide-angle camera is equipped with 18 detectors. Previously, we published examples of simulated images that allow us to imagine what RST images will look like.
It is worth noting that RST will also receive a cartographer — a device capable of “cutting off” the light of a star. It is expected that thanks to the cartographer, RST will be able to obtain the clearest images of protoplanetary and circumstellar disks, as well as find several thousand new exoplanets and directly photograph the largest of them.
According to https://roman.gsfc.nasa.gov
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