{"id":354351,"date":"2026-01-24T01:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-01-23T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/?p=946704"},"modified":"2026-01-24T01:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-01-23T15:00:00","slug":"journey-to-center-of-milky-way-with-upcoming-nasa-roman-core-survey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?p=354351","title":{"rendered":"Journey to Center of Milky Way With Upcoming NASA Roman Core Survey"},"content":{"rendered":"

At the heart of our own galaxy, there is a dense thicket of stars with a supermassive black hole at the very center. NASA\u2019s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will provide the deepest-ever view of this zone, revealing stars, planets, and unique objects that resist definition.<\/p>\n

Based on the input of astronomers from across the globe, the Roman Space Telescope will spend three-quarters of its five-year primary mission conducting three revolutionary surveys<\/a> of unprecedented scale. Their combined results will transform all areas of astronomy and answer longstanding questions about dark matter, dark energy, and planets outside of our solar system, called exoplanets.<\/p>\n

That last theme will be addressed by the Galactic Bulge Time-Domain Survey, which will peer into the center of our galaxy to study the stars and exoplanets that make up the densely populated region around the center of the Milky Way, known as the galactic bulge.<\/p>\n

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\"Galactic<\/a><\/figure>
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This infographic describes the Galactic Bulge Time-Domain Survey that will be conducted by NASA\u2019s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope. The smallest of Roman\u2019s core surveys, this observation program will consist of repeat visits to six fields covering 1.7 square degrees total. One field will pierce the very center of the galaxy, and the others will be nearby \u2014 all in a region of the sky that will be visible to Roman for two 72-day stretches each spring and fall. The survey will mainly consist of six seasons (three early on, and three toward the end of Roman\u2019s primary mission), during which Roman will view each field every 12 minutes. Roman will also view the six fields with less intensity at other times throughout the mission, allowing astronomers to detect microlensing events that can last for years, signaling the presence of isolated, stellar-mass black holes.<\/div>\n
Credit: NASA\u2019s Goddard Space Flight Center<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The survey will observe six patches of the galactic bulge, one pinpointing the center and five nearby, every 12 minutes during 438 days of total observing time. The observations will be separated into six \u201cseasons\u201d spread out over five years.<\/p>\n

Spending so much time focusing on a relatively small area of the sky, the mission will be able to track changes in the motion and light of hundreds of millions of stars, and any planets that orbit them, over long periods \u2014 the \u201ctime-domain\u201d aspect of the survey.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis survey will be the highest precision, highest cadence, longest continuous observing baseline survey of our galactic bulge, where the highest density of stars in our galaxy reside,\u201d said Jessie Christiansen of Caltech\/IPAC, who served as co-chair of the committee that defined the Galactic Bulge Time-Domain Survey.<\/p>\n

Exoplanet microlensing<\/strong><\/p>\n

Roman will use a method called microlensing to search for exoplanets, a technique that has so far identified just over 200 exoplanets, compared to more than 4,000 discovered with the transit method<\/a>, out of the greater than 6,000 currently confirmed<\/a>.<\/p>\n

With this survey, scientists expect to see over 1,000 new planets orbiting other stars just using microlensing alone. This would increase the number of exoplanets identified using this method by more than fivefold.<\/p>\n

A microlensing event is when light from a distant star in the background is warped slightly by a foreground object, like a star and its planet. This warping of light is called gravitational lensing, with the gravity from the star and planet bending the fabric of space that light is traveling through and focusing it like a magnifying glass.<\/p>\n

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