Roman Galactic Plane Survey

This infographic describes the 29-day Galactic Plane Survey that will be conducted by NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope. The survey’s main component will cover 691 square degrees — a region of sky as large as around 3,500 full moons — in 22.5 days. Roman will also view a smaller area — 19 square degrees, the area of 95 full moons — repeatedly for about 5.5 days total to capture things that change over time. The survey’s final component will image a smattering of even smaller areas, adding up to about 4 square degrees (the area of 20 full moons) and 31 total hours, with Roman’s full suite of filters and spectroscopic tools. The survey will reveal our home galaxy in unprecedented detail including many in regions we’ve never been able to see before because they’re blocked by dust, unveiling tens of billions of stars and other objects.
Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center

This visualization begins with a view of the Homunculus Nebula, which houses the massive binary star Eta Carinae, as imaged by the Hubble Space Telescope. The view pulls back to reveal the wider Carina Nebula — a giant, relatively nearby star-forming region in the southern sky. A single Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope pointing will cover more than the Hubble image, which was built from multiple pointings. Roman will view more of the Carina Nebula repeatedly over time with six pointings, allowing astronomers to observe any changes that take place. The entire nebula as well as its surroundings, including a 10,000 light-year-long swath of the spiral arm it resides in, are included in the overall Roman Galactic Plane Survey. The full survey will cover 691 square degrees and is to be completed over the course of two years. The observations will offer an unparalleled opportunity to watch how stars grow, interact, and sculpt their environments, and it’s just one of many thousands of highlights astronomers are looking forward to from this Roman survey.

Includes version with music.

Overall credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

Music Credit: “Code Wave,” Max Cameron Concors [ASCAP], Universal Production Music

Individual image credits:
• Eta Carinae credit: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble SM4 ERO Team
• Carina Nebula close view credit: Hubble Image: NASA, ESA, N. Smith (University of California, Berkeley), and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA); CTIO Image: N. Smith (University of California, Berkeley) and NOAO/AURA/NSF
• Carina Nebula wide view credit: Harel Boren
• Milky Way image provided by Axel Mellinger

Watch this video on YouTube.

These images of the Lagoon Nebula from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope show how viewing space in infrared light shows astronomers details that are hidden in visible light observations. The visible-light image at left is full of dense dust clouds blocking stars embedded deep within them. Those stars shine freely in the infrared image of the same region at right. High-resolution infrared imaging by NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will help astronomers peer through dust and also distinguish stars that usually blur together, which is especially critical when viewing regions of the galaxy where stars are densely concentrated.
Credit: NASA, ESA, and STScI