The Roman Coronagraph is integrated with the Instrument Carrier for NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope in a clean room at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., in October 2024.(Image credit: NASA/Sydney Rohde)
In a clean room at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, scientists have successfully integrated a crucial component onto the Roman Space Telescope. This device, known as the Roman Coronagraph Instrument, is designed to block starlight, enabling scientists to detect the faint light from planets beyond our solar system.
This achievement marks a significant milestone for NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, a next-generation space observatory that will launch around May 2027. With a field of view at least 100 times larger than that of the Hubble Space Telescope, Roman will be used to investigate scientific mysteries related to dark energy, exoplanets, and infrared astrophysics.
It will do so using its one science instrument called the Wide Field Instrument, and the Roman Coronagraph Instrument, which is a technology demonstration—a stepping stone for future space missions, like the proposed Habitable Worlds Observatorywhich would be the first telescope designed specifically to search for signs of life on exoplanets.
“In order to get from where we are to where we want to be, we need the Roman Coronagraph to demonstrate this technology,” said Rob Zellem, Roman Space Telescope deputy project scientist for communications at NASA Goddard. “We’ll be applying those lessons learned to the next generation of NASA flagship missions that will be explicitly designed to look for Earth-like planets.”
The coronagraphwhich is roughly the size of a baby grand piano, is a sophisticated system composed of masks, prisms, detectors, and self-flexing mirrors that work together to block the glare from distant stars, allowing scientists to detect the planets orbiting them.
The Instrument Carrier for Roman is lifted during the integration of the Coronagraph in October 2024 at NASA Goddard. (Image credit: NASA/Sydney Rohde)
Currently, exoplanets are observed through indirect methods, particularly using a technique called transiting. This method involves measuring dips in the light of a distant star that occur when an exoplanet passes in front of it. These dips provide valuable insights, including information about the planet’s atmospheric composition, which is important in determining habitability. They may even reveal the presence of gases that could indicate the existence of life.
While this method has provided incredibly valuable insights, it also has its limitations. For one, only a small fraction of planets can be observed this way, as transits occur for just a brief period during a planet’s total orbital cycle, restricting the amount of data that can be gathered.
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The Roman Coronagraph is integrated with the Instrument Carrier for NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope in a clean room at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., in October 2024. (Image credit: NASA/Sydney Rohde)
For a transit to be detected, the orbital plane must be nearly edge-on to the observer, a condition that applies to only a small minority of distant planets. Consequently, many planets will remain undetected through photometry. Additionally, the duration of a planet’s transit represents only a tiny fraction of its complete orbital period.
Although technologies for obtaining direct images of exoplanets are advancing, they have mainly focused on giant planets that continue to emit light from their recent formation due to their high temperatures, making them easier for telescopes to identify. One notable example is a sequence of images capturing four exoplanets orbiting the star HR 8799, produced by astronomers using data from Hawaii’s Keck Observatory.
A team member works underneath the Instrument Carrier for Roman during the integration of the Coronagraph in a clean room at NASA Goddard in October 2024. (Image credit: NASA/Sydney Rohde)
However, scientists are turning to coronagraphs as the next advancement in planet-seeking technology. The Roman Coronagraph Instrument aims to showcase how this direct imaging technology, which has proven effective with ground-based telescopes, can achieve even greater success in space.
“The Roman Coronagraph is designed to detect planets 100 million times fainter than their stars, or 100 to 1,000 times better than existing space-based coronagraphs,” according to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
The coronagraph was successfully attached to the telescope’s Instrument Carrier, a large grid-like structure positioned between the space telescope’s primary mirror and the spacecraft bus, which will transport the telescope into orbit.
“You can think of [the Instrument Carrier] as the skeleton of the observatory, what everything interfaces to,” said Brandon Creager, lead mechanical engineer for the Roman Coronagraph at JPL. The Instrument Carrier will hold both the coronagraph and Roman’s Wide Field Instrument, the mission’s primary science instrument, which is set to be integrated later this year.
Engineers will now perform different checks and tests before moving forward with the integration of the Wide Field Instrument and finally, the telescope itself.
“It’s really rewarding to watch these teams come together and build up the Roman observatory. That’s the result of a lot of teams, long hours, hard work, sweat, and tears,” said Liz Daly, the integrated payload assembly integration and test lead for Roman at Goddard.
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A chemist turned science writer, Victoria Corless completed her Ph.D. in organic synthesis at the University of Toronto and, ever the cliché, realized lab work was not something she wanted to do for the rest of her days. After dabbling in science writing and a brief stint as a medical writer, Victoria joined Wiley’s Advanced Science Newswhere she works as an editor and writer. On the side, she freelances for various outlets, including Research2Reality and Chemistry World.
In the Ancient Roman calendar, the Ides was the 15th day of the month that marked the full moon’s arrival. However, after March 44 BC, it forever represented a milepost in Roman politics. On that day, while attending a meeting in the Senate, Julius Caesar was stabbed to death by over 40 knife-wielding senators. The aftermath of the murder, ironically carried out to safeguard the Republic, led to the rise of Roman imperial rule, with Caesar’s grandnephew, Octavian, serving as its first emperor.
Of course, Caesar’s assassination and the events of the Ides of March have been seared into our minds thanks to literature and popular culture. However, this list doubles back to a century before the event to forecast a callous political atmosphere that culminated in Caesar’s body lying on the Senate floor.
This period, labeled the Late Roman Republic, was the political Wild West. In context, Rome’s expansion brought wealth and increased land ownership opportunities. However, these weren’t distributed equally, and the divide between the wealthy and the lower classes grew, creating a tense political and economic buffer zone that was waiting to be exploited. This ether would give rise to factions, populists, and demagogues, creating a vicious environment that makes Caesar’s assassination look like another day at the office.
Related: 10 Unresolved Questions about Ancient Rome
Politics tamfitronics 10 Tiberius Gracchus
Murder of Tiberius Gracchus – Ancient Rome – BBC
In the eyes of the Roman aristocracy, Tiberius Gracchus had won the lottery. Born around 163 BC into the prominent Gracchi family, his father was a consul, and his mother was from the legendary Scipio Africanus clan. As such, Tiberius’s political clout was set to success. However, much to the surprise of the Roman elite, Tiberius’s attention was solely focused elsewhere. After becoming tribune in 133 BC—a position that authorized him to propose laws directly to the popular assembly—Tiberius backed numerous legislations favoring the lower classes at the expense of the elite.
In response to the wealth inequality hounding Rome, Tiberius suggested redistributing public lands to the poor. If passed by the Senate, his plans also aimed to restore the class of small independent farmers. Unsurprisingly, the legislation was met with strong opposition from wealthy landowners and the Senate, who deemed it a threat to public order. Yet, despite opposition, Tiberius’s reforms grew increasingly popular with the masses, which led to widespread tensions and hostilities between factions supporting the legislation and their opponents.
Tensions came to a head on June 13, 133 BC, when a group of senators led by Tiberius’s political rival, Scipio Nasica, confronted him as he attended a meeting in the Plebeian Council. In the ensuing struggle, Tiberius was seized by a mob of senators who proceeded to beat him with wooden stools, then stabbed him multiple times and ultimately dumped his body in the Tiber River. In the wake of his assassination, Rome was grappled by a series of conflicts dubbed the Gracchan Wars. The event emphasized how far the aristocracy was willing to go to protect the status quo.[1]
Politics tamfitronics 9 Gaius Gracchus
Gaius Gracchus | 132 – 121 | Roman History DOCUMENTARY
Undeterred by the violent death of his older brother Tiberius Gracchus—and to the horror of the Roman wealthy—Gaius picked up where the former had left. And rubbing salt in the wound, Gaius switched up a notch by proposing subsidized grain distribution to the poor and creating special colonies for the landless outside the city. His programs were envisioned to stabilize the political landscape at the time.
Gaius wouldn’t stop there, though; he also went after the Senate’s powers by including reforms that allowed the election of jurors from the equestrian class, an act that, if passed, would reduce the Senate’s control over judicial systems. His reforms were understandably popular with the poor but were deemed dangerously radical by the elites. Plus, seeing his brother was assassinated for much less, they were worryingly bold.
In 121 BC, a supporter of Gaius was accused of murdering a slave of Lucius Opimius, the then consul. This accusation led the Senate to declare Gaius an enemy of the republic and authorized force against him and his supporters. Forces loyal to the Senate eventually cornered him on the Aventine Hill, where—depending on sources—he either asked one of his servants to kill him or his pursuers decapitated him. Nonetheless, his body was desecrated before his head was mounted on a pike in the Forum as a reminder of the fate awaiting the would-be reformists.[2]
Politics tamfitronics 8 Gaius Memmius
Gaius Memmius, Praetor 58 BCE
Not much is known about Gaius Memmius’s pre-political life, except that he was born a plebeian in the 140s BC and joined the military, where he cultivated his political career. At some point, Memmius served as praetor, followed by his appointment as the proconsular governor of the Roman Province of Macedonia. Described as “irritably hostile” by his opponents, Memmius had a talent for rousing speeches and employed it to hurl bitter rhetoric toward the aristocracy. Following his election as tribune in 111 BC, Memmius stirred the public against a controversial treaty the Senate had negotiated with King Jugurtha, a Numidian king at war with Rome.
Citing the treaty, Memmius accused several senators and some powerful figures of corruption by colluding with the enemy. Besides anti-corruption, Memmius also championed the already controversial land distribution legislation, except he added a cap on public land ownership per individual. Regardless, Memmius served his entire tribunal tenure with no incident, a rarity considering.
In 100 BC, Memmius ran for consul—a position with almost unlimited executive power—against Gaius Servilius Glaucia, a prominent figure and politician. Still, by all accounts, Memmius had favorable odds. Tensions were predictably high on election day, and fearing a potential loss, Glaucia incited a riot among his supporters. In the ensuing carnage, an angry mob attacked and killed the prospective consul in broad daylight. The public outrage caused by Memmius’s murder was widespread. His murder further led to the entrenchment and growing factionalism in Roman politics.[3]
Politics tamfitronics 7 Lucius Apuleius Saturninus
Rome 104 – 101 BC | The Rise of Lucius Appuleius Saturninus
Lucius Saturninus’s early life and activities before his eventual political fame are sparse. Likely born in the early 130s BC, he is believed to have had a stint in the military—a common path for Roman politicians. There, he gained initial popularity. He ultimately gained prominence when elected Tribune of the Plebs in 104 BC and championed popular legislation, including allocating public land to veterans returning from campaigns.
Seemingly outnumbered and at odds with the Senate for most of his tenure, Saturninus aligned himself with Gaius Marius, a controversial general and part-time populist sympathizer. Although it bolstered his political position, earning him re-election, the alliance further heightened his tensions with the Senate. They climaxed in 100 BC after Saturninus proposed a series of controversial legislations that further favored the plebians.
The Senate opposed and accused him of intentionally trying to incite riots using his populist reforms. This led to a political stand-off, which threw the city into unrest, with groups from both sides hunting each other down. At some point, Saturninus was pursued through the streets by a senatorial faction and ironically sought refuge in the senate building. Nevertheless, his men betrayed him to the besieging mob, who tore off the roof, and from there, Saturninus was stoned to death.
Saturninus’s death led to increased efforts by the Senate to stifle the momentum his populist initiatives had created. This led to widespread dissatisfaction, and riots erupted among the lower classes.[4]
Politics tamfitronics 6 Gaius Servilius Glaucia
Marian Reforms and their Military Effects DOCUMENTARY
In 100 BC, shortly after orchestrating Memmius’s assassination, Gaius Servilius Glaucia was similarly assassinated after he was caught in the crossfires between the rising political factions. Capitalizing on one of these blocs, known as the populares or populists, who claimed to represent the interest of the commoners, Glaucia had aligned himself with Lucius Saturninus. Together, they fought to oppose the Senate’s authority.
Besides the land issues, they most notably proposed expanding the rights of the equestrian class, comprised of wealthy non-aristocrats but otherwise very influential figures in Roman society. It was a political maneuver to expand their support base against the Senate. Not to mention, Glaucia’s unscrupulous use of violence and intimidation to solidify his position further alienated many and deepened that rift. In the ongoing deadlock, Rome was gripped by violent riots perpetrated by their supporters.
In response, the Senate issued a decree allowing extreme measures to be taken against those deemed a threat to the Republic. Included in the list were Glaucia and members of his clique. Glaucia, meanwhile, attempted escape by seeking refuge inside the temple of Jupiter. But he was besieged and was captured by the Senate’s forces, who then beat him to death before throwing his body down the temple steps.
The brutal nature of Gaius’s assassination saw former supporters and political allies reassert their positions, as had become the norm. Besides being a huge blow to the Gracchan faction, his death would contribute to the cycle of violence that characterized the period.[5]
Politics tamfitronics 5 Marcus Livius Drusus
Rome 95 – 91 BC | Marcus Livius Drusus Rising
Marcus Livius Drusus was an unconventional politician of his day. While his contemporaries were solely focused—and tearing each other apart—on the constant factional rivalries inside Rome, Drusus was looking outside, particularly at Rome’s Italian allies, advocating for their rights and further recognition. During his term as tribune, Drusus famously introduced a series of legislations that included expanding citizenship to the allies. These initial efforts were fragments of a larger push to address their pre-existing and ignored grievances, which had seen them further excluded from the numerous benefits enjoyed by their Italian peers.
Unsurprisingly, in a political climate where granting grain relief to the city’s poor was deemed fanatical, Drusus’ reforms were met with fierce opposition and were promptly outlawed by the Senate. Yet, despite his precarious position, the undeterred Drusus advocated for his proposals. Meanwhile, many would never forgive his Roman citizenship to the Allies scheme.
In 91 BC, while on his way home one evening, Drusus was ambushed by a group of assassins. After a short chase, they cornered him —as he sought refuge in a friend’s home—stabbed him multipl e times and left his body in the streets. Since Rome’s allies considered it a martyrdom, Drusus’ assassination ignited tensions that resulted in the outbreak of the Social War (91-88 BC), which ended after Rome accepted to grant them citizenship.[6]
Politics tamfitronics 4 Gaius Julius Caesar Strabo
Optimates and Populares in Late Republican Rome
Around 131 BC, Gaius Julius Caesar Strabo, alias Vopiscus, was born into the influential Julian clan, then at its peak in Roman politics. Though separated by several generations and from different branches of the family tree, Strabo and the future-famous Julius Caesar shared a common ancestor. The future dictator is said to have admired Strabo’s political dialogues, which inspired his speeches. Tragically, in hindsight, the young dictator should have perhaps studied Strabo’s fall.
Politically, Strabo served as an aedile, a position that, among other things, put him in charge of public works and games in the city. Around this time, Strabo got involved with the ongoing conflict between two factions: the populares and the optimates. In a violent deadlock on how power should be distributed, the populares proposed the wishes of the common people should bypass the traditional senatorial authority. On the other hand, the optimates defended the status quo.
By 87 BC, and already an outspoken supporter of the populares, Strabo would twist the proverbial knife when he made a controversial bid for the consulship without standing for the praetorship first, as was the norm. Using this as a pretext to protect the Republic, a mob of armed senators, under the leadership of Gaius Marius, confronted Strabo, alongside his brother Lucius, in the streets of Rome. The two brothers were hacked to death in the ensuing clash, and their heads were later put on public display. The brazen murder of the Julii brothers highlighted how toxic Roman politics had become.[7]
Politics tamfitronics 3 Publius Clodius the Fair
Cicero and Clodius: Best of Enemies
The Claudii was a distinguished clan in Rome, and it featured several figures and would-be Roman emperors. In 93 BC, a new member was born: Publius Clodius Pulcher. By leveraging his family name, Clodius’s career quickly soared. His political appointment coincided with the raging tensions between the populares and optimates. Sizing his prospects, he cast his lot with the former. Afterward, armed with plebeian support and an army of thugs beside him, he bullied his way to the position of tribune. Consequently, to his opponents, Clodius had become the embodiment of a populist fanatic.
In 62 BC, Clodius was entangled in a scandal after it was revealed that he had snuck into The Bona Dea—a sacred rite only reserved for women—disguised as a woman. Among those in attendance was Terentia, Cicero’s wife. Understandably, the incident—plus Cicero was a staunch optimate—didn’t sit well with the famous orator, and it ignited a public feud. Yet Clodius kept stumbling from one scandal to another, alienating close allies.
Still, Clodius got embroiled in another feud with a prominent optimate, Annius Milo. However, unlike Cicero, Milo took his political grudge from the Senate floor to the streets. On January 18, 52 BC, while returning to Rome from a trip, Clodius crossed paths with Milo on the Via Apia, on the fringes of Rome. The two men and their armed entourage clashed, and Clodius was bludgeoned to death. His body was then dragged to the streets of Rome to be desecrated and displayed.
Clodius’s murder spelled doom for the Republic; it left a power vacuum that led to significant shifts in Roman power dynamics that exacerbated the stage for the eventual transition to the Roman Empire.[8]
Politics tamfitronics 2 Lucius Cornelius Cinna
Lucius Cornelius Cinna, Praetor 44 BCE
Besides being Julius Caesar’s father-in-law, Lucius Cinna was also an alumnus of the Social War (91-88 BC) and served as legate. This stint saw him rise through the political ranks, eventually becoming a key figure in the Marian faction—which subscribed to reforms proposed by Gaius Marius. In 87 BC, Cinna was elected consul, a position he would hold on to, serving four consecutive terms. His election coincided with significant conflicts caused by Sulla, a rogue Roman military commander who had marched on Rome, causing turmoil.
In response, Cinna waged a civil war against Sulla’s supporters. Cinna also locked horns with the Senate numerous times, thanks to an alliance with the previously exiled Gaius Marius. Together, they went on a political cleansing, stopping at nothing to crush their enemies. This led to even more tensions, culminating with Cinna’s expulsion from Rome. However, Cinna returned with an army behind him and resumed terror on his political rivals.
In 84 BC, Cinna was preparing for a military campaign against Sulla when his troops—depending on sources, either dissatisfied with his overly tyrannical rule or bribed by his enemies— mutinied. Following an assembly to address the unrest within his ranks, Cinna was mobbed and killed. Exact details vary, but it’s generally believed that he was stabbed multiple times.
Cinna was one of the last prominent members of the populares. His death led rival factions, particularly the optimates, to bolster their strength in the Senate.[9]
Politics tamfitronics 1 The Man Who Gives Dictators a Bad Name
Lucius Cornelius Sulla | Rome’s brutal dictator
Lucius Cornelius Sulla wasn’t assassinated; he appears on this list solely because of his victims. Despite being born a patrician in 138 BC, Sulla was reportedly not that wealthy growing up. He caught a break in the military, where his exploits in the Social War saw him soar through the ranks. Finally, in 88 BC, he was appointed commander of the Roman armies but faced opposition from Gaius Marius and his supporters.
In response, Sulla performed a shocking “historical first” when he marched on Rome and captured the city (setting a precedent for Julius Caesar, who would famously cross the Rubicon decades later). However, Marius had died by the time Sulla settled in as dictator. Not to be held back, Sulla turned his attention to Marius’s remaining supporters to nurse his itching grudge. That came in the form of the dreaded Proscription Lists.
Also known as Sulla’s lists, they included around 80, later expanded to 200 and then 800 individuals. Names unlucky enough to end up on the list meant confiscation of property and execution (though sometimes just the former) without trial. Updated and published regularly in public spaces, they targeted prominent figures, senators, and the wealthy.
Once the list was posted, Sulla’s murder squads would then roam the streets to hunt down the proscribed. Seeing historians estimate between 1,000 and 9,000 victims, Sulla’s purge lists deserve a separate list. Still, figures like Marcus Lepidus, Quintus Sertorius, and Publius Rufus are just a few examples of politicians whose fates were sealed by the lists. Even Julius Caesar and Gnaeus Pompey were at some point targeted but managed to survive.
Sulla’s proscriptions were notoriously arbitrary; names could be added based on multiple reasons. It didn’t matter which faction an individual belonged to; even Sulla’s sycophants would regularly appear on the lists. Attempts to assassinate him further exacerbated the carnage, resulting in lists becoming longer and more belligerent. Sulla’s reign of terror was unique even for the serial Roman survivalists. Seemingly satisfied with his murderous streak, Sulla retired from office in 79 BC—a rare and odd move, considering—to seemingly enjoy his ill-gotten wealth. He later died of old age at his countryside villa.
His reign of terror is deservedly a grim chapter in the Late Republic’s story, for it marked the moment Rome tasted bitter autocratic rule. Perhaps it was the memory of that chapter, ingrained in the minds of those 40 knife-wielding senators, that led them to put an end to Julius Caesar after he was declared dictator for life![10]
The universe is a dynamic, ever-changing place where galaxies are dancing, merging together, and shifting appearance. Unfortunately, because these changes take millions or billions of years, telescopes can only provide snapshots, squeezed into a human lifetime.
However, galaxies leave behind clues to their history and how they came to be. NASA’s upcoming Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will have the capacity to look for these fossils of galaxy formation with high-resolution imaging of galaxies in the nearby universe.
Astronomers, through a grant from NASA, are designing a set of possible observations called RINGS (the Roman Infrared Nearby Galaxies Survey) that would collect these remarkable images, and the team is producing publicly available tools that the astronomy community can use once Roman launches and starts taking data. The RINGS survey is a preliminary concept that may or may not be implemented during Roman’s science mission.
Roman is uniquely prepared for RINGS due to its resolution akin to NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope and its wide field of view – – 200 times that of Hubble in the infrared – – making it a sky survey telescope that complements Hubble’s narrow-field capabilities.
Galactic Archaeologists
Scientists can only look at brief instances in the lives of evolving galaxies that eventually lead to the fully formed galaxies around us today. As a result, galaxy formation can be difficult to track.
Luckily, galaxies leave behind hints of their evolution in their stellar structures, almost like how organisms on Earth can leave behind imprints in rock. These galactic “fossils” are groups of ancient stars that hold the history of the galaxy’s formation and evolution, including the chemistry of the galaxy when those stars formed.
These cosmic fossils are of particular interest to Robyn Sanderson, the deputy principal investigator of RINGS at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. She describes the process of analyzing stellar structures in galaxies as “like going through an excavation and trying to sort out bones and put them back together.”
Roman’s high resolution will allow scientists to pick out these galactic fossils, using structures ranging from long tidal tails on a galaxy’s outskirts to stellar streams within the galaxy. These large-scale structures, which Roman is uniquely capable of capturing, can give clues to a galaxy’s merger history. The goal, says Sanderson, is to “reassemble these fossils in order to look back in time and understand how these galaxies came to be.”
Shedding Light on Dark Matter
RINGS will also enable further investigations of one of the most mysterious substances in the universe: dark matter, an invisible form of matter that makes up most of a galaxy’s mass. A particularly useful class of objects for testing dark matter theories are ultra-faint dwarf galaxies. According to Raja GuhaThakurta of the University of California, Santa Cruz, “Ultra faint dwarf galaxies are so dark matter-dominated that they have very little normal matter for star formation. With so few stars being created, ultra-faint galaxies can essentially be seen as pure blobs of dark matter to study.”
Roman, thanks to its large field of view and high resolution, will observe these ultra-faint galaxies to help test multiple theories of dark matter. With these new data, the astronomical community will come closer to finding the truth about this unobservable dark matter that vastly outweighs visible matter: dark matter makes up about 80% of the universe’s matter while normal matter comprises the remaining 20%.
Ultra-faint galaxies are far from the only test of dark matter. Often, just looking in an average-sized galaxy’s backyard is enough. Structures in the halo of stars surrounding a galaxy often give hints to the amount of dark matter present. However, due to the sheer size of galactic halos (they are often 15-20 times as big as the galaxy itself), current telescopes are deeply inefficient at observing them.
At the moment, the only fully resolved galactic halos scientists have to go on are our own Milky Way and Andromeda, our neighbor galaxy. Ben Williams, the principal investigator of RINGS at the University of Washington in Seattle, describes how Roman’s power will amend this problem: “We only have reliable measurements of the Milky Way and Andromeda, because those are close enough that we can get measurements of a large number of stars distributed across their stellar halos. So, with Roman, all of a sudden we’ll have 100 or more of these fully resolved galaxies.”
When Roman launches by May 2027, it is expected to fundamentally alter how scientists understand galaxies. In the process, it will shed some light on our own home galaxy. The Milky Way is easy to study up close, but we do not have a large enough selfie stick to take a photo of our entire galaxy and its surrounding halo. RINGS shows what Roman is capable of should such a survey be approved. By studying the nearby universe, RINGS can examine galaxies similar in size and age to the Milky Way, and shed light on how we came to be here.
The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is managed at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, with participation by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Caltech/IPAC in Southern California, the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, and a science team comprising scientists from various research institutions. The primary industrial partners are BAE Systems, Inc in Boulder, Colorado; L3Harris Technologies in Rochester, New York; and Teledyne Scientific & Imaging in Thousand Oaks, California.
By Patt Molinari Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, Md.
NASA has awarded Nancy Grace Roman Technology Fellowships (RTF) to five early-career researchers in astrophysics for the class of 2023. The program will support the advancement of their ideas for new technologies to further the exploration of the universe.
This annual fellowship gives researchers the opportunity to develop the skills necessary to become principal investigators of future astrophysics missions, and fosters new talent by putting early-career instrument builders on track towards long-term positions. Specifically, the fellowship facilitates the development of skills necessary to lead astrophysics flight instrumentation development projects, as well as the development of innovative technologies that have the potential to enable major scientific breakthroughs.
“We saw higher numbers of strong applications for this class than in recent years, so we are especially honored to welcome this new group of five fellows,” says Mario Perez, RTF program scientist and chief technologist for NASA’s Astrophysics Division, based at the agency’s headquarters in Washington. “These new fellows advance important areas of technological interest to NASA astrophysics, and we expect them to become leaders in their fields and principal investigators of supporting technologies and space missions.”
Since the RTF program was established in 2011, all 31 researchers who have previously been awarded the fellowship are still active in careers within the fields of astrophysics or planetary mission development. In 2024, five additional fellows were competitively selected, making the total 36 researchers who have been awarded this fellowship since the program began.
The program’s name honors Dr. Nancy Grace Roman, the first female executive at NASA who created the agency’s first astronomical program. She is known as the “Mother of Hubble” for her foundational role in planning NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope. NASA’s forthcoming Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is also named for her.
The five newly selected fellows are:
Technology tamfitronics Nicholas Kruczek
Position: Instrument engineer, Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) at the University of Colorado, Boulder
Hometown:Orchard Park, New York (“Go Bills!”)
Education:B.A. in Physics, Drexel University; Ph.D. in Astrophysical and Planetary Science, University of Colorado, Boulder
What is the focus of your research?Ultraviolet (UV) instrumentation and sounding rockets, with a focus on diffraction grating development.
What does this fellowship mean to you?At LASP, we’ve assembled a team that’s knowledgeable and passionate about sounding rockets and developing novel UV technologies. Having this environment provides a strong platform for mentoring undergraduate and graduate students. This fellowship provides much needed support to keep that team together and maintain our mission of the training the next generation of UV principal investigators and Roman fellows.
What inspired you to pursue your career in astrophysics?I’ve always been fascinated by the physics of light and its interaction with optics. Astrophysical instrumentation provided an outlet to channel that passion into a career. It gives me the opportunity to study optical phenomena in detail, but in the context of gaining a deeper understanding of the physical processes governing our universe.
Technology tamfitronics Drew Miles
Position: Research assistant professor, California Institute of Technology
Hometown: Marshalltown, Iowa
Education: B.B.A in Accounting and B.S. in Physics and Astronomy, University of Iowa; M.S. and Ph.D. in Astronomy and Astrophysics, Penn State University
What is the focus of your research? My research is focused on developing and demonstrating technologies for space-based grating spectrographs. In this work we develop the full life cycle of the technology: conceiving new spectrograph designs and applications, using nanofabrication techniques to manufacture next-generation diffraction gratings, implementing the gratings into astronomy instruments, and verifying their performance in applications representative of their applicability to large NASA missions.
What does this fellowship mean to you? This fellowship will help allow me to further develop my research program and implement the lab support and characterization capabilities needed to advance our technologies. Further, the Nancy Grace Roman Technology Fellowship program continues to be an excellent investment in the careers of early-career researchers, and I am appreciative at being awarded a fellowship and having the opportunity to advance impactful instrumentation for the future.
What inspired you to pursue your career in astrophysics? After not having exposure to physics and astronomy prior to college, I became interested in further exploring astronomy while taking a few elective physics and astronomy courses during my business degree. The idea of working to better understand the nature and evolution of our universe is extremely compelling. Later, I was fortunate to become involved in a research lab for experimental astrophysics and was hooked by the hands-on nature of the research and the need to maintain a long-term vision for the technology while ensuring the smallest details are well understood. Throughout my time as a student and postdoctoral researcher, the positive mentorship from my dissertation advisor (and former Roman Technology Fellow), Dr. Randall McEntaffer, and other members of the field have been critical in teaching me and allowing me to grow into the field.
Technology tamfitronics Johanna Nagy
Position:Warren E. Rupp Assistant Professor of Physics at Case Western Reserve University
Hometown:Lompoc, California
Education:B.S. in Physics, Stanford University; Ph.D. in Physics, Case Western Reserve University
What is the focus of your research? My research group focuses on cosmology, studying the evolution and composition of the universe through increasingly precise measurements of the Cosmic Microwave Background. We build instruments to measure its polarization and analyze the resulting data. Several of our current projects use NASA’s stratospheric balloons to access signals that are difficult to see from the ground.
What does this fellowship mean to you?
This fellowship will allow me to continue to grow my research group and expand our lab’s capabilities. I am most excited about being able to work with more undergraduate and graduate students and to help them pursue their own career paths.
What inspired you to pursue your career in astrophysics?
I became deeply interested in space when I was in middle school, but in college I learned how much I enjoy experimental work. It still amazes me that instruments we build by hand in the lab can help us answer fundamental questions about the universe. I have also been fortunate to have many fantastic mentors throughout my career and hope to pay it forward.
Technology tamfitronics Dustin Swarm
Position:Postdoctoral Research Scholar in the Department of Physics & Astronomy at University of Iowa
Hometown:Greenville, Illinois
Education:B.S. in Spanish Education, B.A. in Physics and Mathematics, Greenville University; Ph.D. in Physics, University of Iowa
What is the focus of your research? My research involves the design and fabrication of focusing optics for high-energy astrophysics investigations. Constructing telescopes with focusing optics that operate in the hard X-ray to soft gamma-ray regime (100-600 keV) is unfeasible with current technologies. Developing high-performance focusing optics for this regime would enable deeper investigations of, for instance, accreting compact objects or sources of electron-positron annihilation.
What does this fellowship mean to you? The Roman Technology Fellowship is impactful for my early career in a number of ways. It is a major source of encouragement that my work is interesting and meaningful to people beyond myself. It is a validation that I have a place in the broader astrophysics community. It offers a chance of stability and a solid foundation on which to build my nascent career. I am also grateful for the opportunity it provides me to mentor and train future astrophysicists, following in the footsteps of the mentors who have poured into me along this journey. I am honored to be selected as a Roman Technology Fellow.
What inspired you to pursue your career in astrophysics? I grew up with a love of science. From my mother burying chicken bones in my sandbox to inspire my play as a paleontologist to my grandfather purchasing a telescope so we could look at the Moon in his backyard, my ambition was to become a scientist. I began college on an aerospace engineering path, but along the way I switched majors to Spanish education. I spent six years as a high school Spanish teacher, but during that time I followed the physics and astronomy world through documentaries, news articles, and books. I missed engaging with mathematics and science, and I eventually decided it was time to go back to school to become an astrophysicist. It was in this time that NASA’s Juno spacecraft was transmitting high quality photographs of Jupiter, and the ground-based LIGO, the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory, was detecting black hole mergers. I was wrapping up my second undergraduate degree when news broke of the simultaneous detection of gravitational waves and electromagnetic radiation from the neutron star merger GW170817. I was fascinated by the papers published on this event, and it cemented my desire to become a high-energy astrophysicist.
Technology tamfitronics Kyle Van Gorkom
Position: Assistant research professor at Steward Observatory, University of Arizona
Hometown: Tucson, Arizona
Education: B.S. in Physics and Philosophy, Brandeis University; Ph.D. in Optical Sciences, University of Arizona
What is the focus of your research: My research focuses on the use of high-contrast imaging techniques and wavefront control to directly image exoplanets (planets around other stars) with space- and ground-based observatories.
What does this fellowship mean to you: This fellowship will enable me to start building an independent research program, to set up a laboratory for technology development in coronagraphy, and to begin mentoring the next generation of instrument builders.
What inspired you to pursue a career in astrophysics: I first became interested in astrophysics after taking a philosophy of science course during college, which led me to realize that if I wanted to be able to think carefully about the world, I needed a deeper understanding of physics. I joined a research group doing radio astronomy and then, following graduation, worked several years at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, which introduced me to astronomical instrumentation and motivated me to pursue a PhD in optics. Over the years, I’ve had several supportive mentors whose guidance set me on my current career trajectory.
