The Incredible Scale of Roman’s Galactic Plane Survey

Описание: 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.

Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

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

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

Story link: https://www.nasa.gov/missions/roman-s...

Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
Visualizer: Scott Wiessinger (eMITS)
Producer: Scott Wiessinger (eMITS)
Science Writer: Ashley Balzer (eMITS)

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