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[Music throughout] Astronomy is largely the study of light from distant places.

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Each kind of light carries different information that adds

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to our picture of the universe.

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The upcoming Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will detect a key

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range of light for studying the universe: visible into

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near-infrared. Infrared, which starts at a

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wavelength of about 0.75 microns, will allow the

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Roman Space Telescope to make many critical observations. Roman

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engineers now plan to add a new filter, extending its range

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from 2 to 2.3 microns. This seemingly small

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change will make a big difference.

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Our galaxy, the Milky Way, is filled with bands of dust and gas

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that block our view of the stars behind them. Part of

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what makes infrared light so useful to astronomers is its ability to

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travel through this gas and dust. Infrared light has a longer

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wavelength than visible light, which means it is less likely to be scattered

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and absorbed by small dust particles as it travels over long distances.

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Upgrading from 2 to 2.3 microns

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allows astronomers to see through two to three times as much dust.

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This opens up much more of our galaxy to study, including

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surveys of small, dim stars that glow mostly in infrared.

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Infrared is also good for studying the more

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distant parts of the universe. As the universe expands,

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it stretches the wavelengths of light along with it, a process called redshift.

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The farther away an object is, the more the light from it has

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stretched by the time it reaches us. Distant galaxies have all of

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their visible light shifted into infrared.

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Stretching over distance makes redshift one of the key tools for measuring the universe.

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Since astronomers can usually determine what wavelength

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they would see from up close, they can tell how far a galaxy is

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by how much the light has changed.

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Closer to home is the search for water within the solar system. Water ice

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absorbs specific wavelengths of infrared light, providing a “fingerprint"

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of its presence. As telescopes see farther into the infrared,

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they can see more of this fingerprint. If objects in the

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outer solar system, such as rocky fragments in the distant Kuiper Belt, contain

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water ice, light reflected off them will have gaps where the water

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has absorbed that wavelength. This allows astronomers to detect

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water at much greater distances.

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The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will form an unprecedented

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partnership with Hubble and the James Webb Space Telescope.

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With its extremely large field of view, Roman is uniquely equipped

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for large surveys of the infrared sky, allowing astronomers

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to identify interesting targets for more detailed study

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using Hubble and Webb’s overlapping wavelength ranges and smaller fields of view.

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This collaboration will usher in a new era

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in infrared astronomy.

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[NASA]