Astronomers eagerly await the launch of the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, set to reveal secrets about cosmic explosions in unprecedented detail. The telescope’s High-Latitude Time-Domain Survey will image a vast region of sky beyond the Milky Way every five days for two years, capturing thousands of Type 1a supernovae.
These explosive events occur in binary star systems, where one star is a white dwarf that draws material from its companion, leading to a runaway reaction and a supernova explosion. Type 1a supernovae serve as standard candles, allowing astronomers to accurately gauge the distance to galaxies and trace the expansion of the Universe.
The Roman Space Telescope’s survey will uncover thousands of Type 1a SN, pushing back their observation time by billions of years. This will provide critical evidence for the Universe’s expansion in its early age. The telescope also aims to detect other transients, including superluminous supernovae, tidal disruption events, and pair-instability supernovae.
The Roman Space Telescope is a crucial tool in the study of dark energy, which has been shown to change over time. By exploring cosmic history in ways that previous telescopes cannot, Roman will help scientists understand this phenomenon better.
While the mission’s future is uncertain due to budget cuts, its dataset is expected to be a treasure trove for astrophysicists worldwide. If launched and approved, Roman will advance our understanding of Nature’s most extreme objects and events, revealing secrets that have been hidden in space for billions of years.
Source: https://www.universetoday.com/articles/supernova-cinematography-how-nasas-roman-space-telescope-will-create-a-movie-of-exploding-stars