The “Mother of Hubble” Becomes the WFIRST Namesake
Image: Caroline Juang (catblip) / NASA
By Katherine Melbourne, 2019 Brooke Owens Fellow
Since I first decided I wanted to be an astronomer at age 11, I would make lists of my heroes in the field, clipping newspaper articles and learning as much as I could about their work. Among all the astronomers and physicists I admired, Nancy Grace Roman has consistently been an inspiration as I pursue my goals in both astronomy and the aerospace industry.
In addition to her research career, Nancy knew the value of thinking big-picture and helped lead NASA’s astronomy efforts since the agency’s establishment. After being one of the first people to propose the use of space-based telescopes for the detection of exoplanets, technology similar to what Nancy suggested is now being used in the flagship mission previously known as the Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST), to be launched around 2025. NASA announced last week that WFIRST will now be called the Roman Space Telescope, to honor Nancy’s contributions both to astronomy and the development of innovative space telescopes.
Developing the Hubble Space Telescope
Astronomers in the 1960s were initially not convinced that spending so much capital on a space-based telescope would be worth it, suggesting that many ground-based telescopes like ones that already existed be built instead. As the first woman in an executive position at NASA, Nancy played a crucial role in advocating for space telescopes, including the initial ideas that would become the Hubble Space Telescope. She argued that the ability to take observations from space without the effect of Earth’s atmosphere would provide many breakthroughs in astronomy that would make it worth the investment. Great advances in astronomy require not only groundbreaking research methods and data but adept navigation of funding and policy. Nancy recognized this, working with Congress to establish the foundations of the Hubble Space Telescope (originally the Large Space Telescope) program and ensuring that astronomers everywhere had a say in what science Hubble would accomplish. It is fitting that as Hubble now celebrates the 30th anniversary of its launch in 1990, the Roman Space Telescope is being developed as its successor.
The Roman Space Telescope Mission
The Hubble Space Telescope is responsible for many iconic discoveries and images in astronomy over the past several decades. Hubble has helped create maps of dark matter, perform initial observations to characterize exoplanet atmospheres, and capture light from galaxies farther away than ever previously observed, among many other essential milestones. The Roman Space Telescope will be comprised of a Wide Field Instrument and a Coronograph instrument and will have a field of view in the infrared 100 times greater than that of Hubble’s. It will also seek to find exoplanets using the microlensing technique, increasing the number discovered using this method from 89 to ~2600. Dark energy will be a focus of observations as well, as the Roman Space Telescope will seek to map the distribution of matter throughout the universe in addition to understanding the universe’s expansion and evolution.
Following in Nancy’s Footsteps
Nancy made huge strides in astronomy and space technologies at a time when women were not encouraged to seek careers in STEM, and since her efforts, thousands have followed in her footsteps. My own undergraduate thesis relied heavily on the Hubble Space Telescope and would not have been possible without Nancy’s work. Now, as a systems engineer at Ball Aerospace, my company is under contract with NASA to build the Wide Field Instrument for the Roman Space Telescope. I watched the name change announcement live on a conference call with the rest of Ball’s Roman Space Telescope team. At that moment, I looked over at my Nancy Grace Roman figurine from the Women at NASA LEGO set that sits on my desk, feeling humbled to be a part of building her future legacy.