Latest / The Kevin Stone Podcast / Episode #21 - "The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope"

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Episode #21 - "The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope" · The Kevin Stone Podcast

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  Speaker 1: The content of this program is for entertainment purposes only,
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  Speaker 1: mainly the entertainment of the program creator. If at any
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  Speaker 1: time you find any of this program to be offensive,
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  Speaker 1: you should immediately rewind the program to the beginning and
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  Speaker 1: listen to it again. The sarcasm presented by the content
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  Speaker 1: creator is so accurate it is illegal in 14 states.
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  Speaker 1: You are listening to the Kevin Stone Podcast, broadcasting to
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  Speaker 1: you from an unknown location.
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  Speaker 2: Customized listening. Let's begin by cleaning those ears. Who am I?
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  Speaker 2: I'm a nobody. I just happen to have a camera
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  Speaker 2: and a microphone and an internet connection, which makes me
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  Speaker 2: a superstar. There's vulnerable, there's vulnerable, there's vulnerable, there's vulnerable.
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  Speaker 2: Spit it out! I have beef enchiladas in the oven. What? Yes.
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  Speaker 2: And you made them or are they frozen? Um, well
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  Speaker 2: they won't be frozen in about 35 minutes. Ha ha
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  Speaker 2: ha ha ha ha ha. Sunday morning, NASA launched a
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  Speaker 2: brand new space telescope worth approximately $ 4. 3 billion. And I
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  Speaker 2: watched it happen live. Well, I actually watched the final
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  Speaker 2: five seconds happen live. I turned on NASA TV just
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  Speaker 2: as the countdown reached five. Four, three, two, one, ignition.
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  Speaker 2: I had no time to prepare emotionally. I barely had
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  Speaker 2: time to realize I'd found the right channel. And suddenly,
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  Speaker 2: a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket was lifting NASA's Nancy Grace
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  Speaker 2: Roman Space Telescope off the launch pad and carrying it
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  Speaker 2: towards space. So technically, I watched the entire launch. As
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  Speaker 2: long as we define entire launch as the part where
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  Speaker 2: the rocket actually launched. Charlie says arriving with five seconds
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  Speaker 2: left doesn't make me a dedicated space correspondent. I disagree.
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  Speaker 2: I say it makes me an extremely efficient space correspondent.
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  Speaker 2: I have always loved this space stuff. I grew up
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  Speaker 2: in a time when NASA missions still felt like major
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  Speaker 2: national events. When there was a launch, people stopped and watched.
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  Speaker 2: And even now, after all the launches we've seen and
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  Speaker 2: all the technology we carry around in our pockets, there
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  Speaker 2: is still something incredible about watching a rocket leave Earth.
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  Speaker 2: You're watching years of planning. Billions of dollars, thousands of
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  Speaker 2: people's work, and an unbelievable amount of engineering sitting on
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  Speaker 2: top of what is essentially a controlled explosion. Everybody involved
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  Speaker 2: has checked everything they can possibly check. Somebody eventually has
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  Speaker 2: to say, alright, light it up. Sunday morning, the Falcon
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  Speaker 2: Heavy lifted off from Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space
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  Speaker 2: Center in Florida. That's the same historic launch complex used
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  Speaker 2: for Apollo missions, space shuttle missions, and now some of
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  Speaker 2: the most important launches of the modern space program. The
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  Speaker 2: two-sided boosters separated and returned to the Earth. The upper
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  Speaker 2: stage continued carrying Roman into space. A little over half
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  Speaker 2: an hour after liftoff, the telescope separated from the rocket
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  Speaker 2: and began flying on its own. That's an important distinction,
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  Speaker 2: because the launch wasn't just the rocket went up and
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  Speaker 2: didn't immediately come back down. Roman successfully separated from the
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  Speaker 2: Falcon Heavy and began its journey toward its new home
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  Speaker 2: approximately one million miles from Earth. And somewhere at NASA,
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  Speaker 2: I assume at least one person started breathing again. Before
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  Speaker 2: we talk about the telescope, we should probably talk about
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  Speaker 2: the woman whose name is on it, Dr. Nancy Grace Roman.
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  Speaker 2: She was NASA's first chief of astronomy. She joined NASA
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  Speaker 2: in 1959, during the agency's earliest years, and became one
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  Speaker 2: of the major driving forces behind putting powerful observatories in space.
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  Speaker 2: She's often called the Mother of Hubble because she helped
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  Speaker 2: make the Hubble Space Telescope possible long before it was
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  Speaker 2: ever launched. She understood that the Earth's atmosphere, while extremely
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  Speaker 2: useful for things like breathing and keeping us alive, interferes
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  Speaker 2: with our view of the universe. Apparently, the atmosphere can't
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  Speaker 2: do everything. Roman pushed for telescopes that could operate above
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  Speaker 2: that interference and make the discoveries available to scientists throughout
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  Speaker 2: the world. She died in 2018. But the telescope carrying
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  Speaker 2: her name will continue her work for the next decade.
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  Speaker 2: NASA has given us a space telescope named for a
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  Speaker 2: person who helped give us space telescopes. That seems appropriate.
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  Speaker 2: It's also the first major NASA observatory named in honor
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  Speaker 2: of a woman. Now we come to the number that
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  Speaker 2: always gets everybody's attention. The total estimated life cycle cost
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  Speaker 2: of the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is approximately $ 4. 3 billion. Charlie,
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  Speaker 2: put that number on an imaginary control room calculator and
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  Speaker 2: make sure I didn't accidentally add a decimal point. Yep, $ 4. 3 billion.
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  Speaker 2: But that number isn't simply the price of the telescope
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  Speaker 2: sitting on top of the rocket. NASA's life cycle estimate
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  Speaker 2: includes developing it, building it, testing it, launching it, and
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  Speaker 2: operating it during the mission. That doesn't mean that $ 4. 3
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  Speaker 2: billion is pocket change. It's still an enormous investment of
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  Speaker 2: public money. And the public has every right to ask,
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  Speaker 2: what are we receiving in return? What we are receiving
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  Speaker 2: is one of the most powerful survey telescopes ever constructed.
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  Speaker 2: Roman's primary mission is expected to last five years, but
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  Speaker 2: the observatory was designed to support another five-year extended mission.
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  Speaker 2: If Roman completes 10 productive years in space, that works
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  Speaker 2: out to about $ 430 million per year when the entire
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  Speaker 2: life cycle cost is spread across the missions. That's still expensive.
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  Speaker 2: But we have spent enormous amounts of money on things
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  Speaker 2: that didn't produce a three-dimensional map of the universe. Heck,
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  Speaker 2: some of them didn't even produce a usable website. Roman
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  Speaker 2: is traveling toward the second Sun-Earth Lagrange point, commonly called L2.
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  Speaker 2: Now this is something extremely interesting because I had no
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  Speaker 2: earthly idea about this. L2 is approximately 930,000 miles or
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  Speaker 2: roughly 1 million miles from Earth. That's about four times
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  Speaker 2: farther away than the moon. This doesn't mean Roman will
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  Speaker 2: fly to an invisible platform in space, put the transmission
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  Speaker 2: in park, and sit there. A Lagrange point is an
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  Speaker 2: area where the gravity of the Sun and Earth work
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  Speaker 2: together with a spacecraft's motion to help it maintain a
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  Speaker 2: relatively stable position. Roman will travel in a large orbit
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  Speaker 2: around the L2 region, similar to the James Webb Space Telescope.
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  Speaker 2: It won't be right next to the James Webb Telescope.
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  Speaker 2: Space is fairly large. NASA should be able to keep
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  Speaker 2: the two telescopes from backing into each other. Roman's distant
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  Speaker 2: location will give it a steady, unobstructed view of the
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  Speaker 2: universe while helping to keep its instruments cool. It can
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  Speaker 2: also maintain that orbit without using a large amount of fuel. However,
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  Speaker 2: being a million miles away creates one obvious problem. If
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  Speaker 2: something goes wrong, a NASA technician can't drive out there
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  Speaker 2: with a toolbox. NASA currently has no way to service
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  Speaker 2: a telescope at L2. Roman was designed so it could
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  Speaker 2: potentially be refueled someday, but we don't presently have a
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  Speaker 2: mission capable of doing that. Once Roman reaches L2, it
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  Speaker 2: needs to work. No pressure, only a $ 4. 3 billion telescope
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  Speaker 2: sitting 1 million miles away. Roman has a 7.9 foot
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  Speaker 2: primary mirror. The same basic diameter as Hubble's primary mirror.
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  Speaker 2: But Roman is not simply Hubble 2.0. Hubble is very
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  Speaker 2: good at looking deeply and sharply at relatively small sections
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  Speaker 2: of the sky. Roman was built to capture much larger
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  Speaker 2: areas while maintaining Hubble-like sharpness. Its field of view is
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  Speaker 2: at least 100 times larger than the Hubble. Imagine Hubble
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  Speaker 2: looking through a narrow window and seeing something with extraordinary detail.
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  Speaker 2: Roman can see that same level of detail through something
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  Speaker 2: closer to a panoramic windshield. Each Roman image will cover
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  Speaker 2: an area of the sky approximately 1.5 times larger than
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  Speaker 2: the apparent size of a full moon. And packed inside
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  Speaker 2: the telescope is a roughly 300 megapixel wide field instrument.
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  Speaker 2: For comparison, my phone has enough megapixels to document every scratch, wrinkle,
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  Speaker 2: and bad decision on my face. Roman's camera is designed
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  Speaker 2: to photograph billions of galaxies. Slightly different purpose. Roman will
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  Speaker 2: be able to survey the sky up to 1,000 times
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  Speaker 2: faster than Hubble while maintaining similar infrared sensitivity and resolution.
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  Speaker 2: It will collect about 1.4 terabytes of raw scientific data
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  Speaker 2: every day. Over its five-year primary mission, the processed information
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  Speaker 2: could total approximately 20 petabytes. That's 20,000 terabytes. I would
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  Speaker 2: not want to have the job of coming up with
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  Speaker 2: names for all this stuff. Charlie has informed me that
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  Speaker 2: my current computer may not have enough room. I might
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  Speaker 2: have to delete a few podcast thumbnails. Roman will primarily
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  Speaker 2: study the universe in infrared light. That's light that our
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  Speaker 2: eyes can't see. Infrared observations allow astronomers to look through
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  Speaker 2: clouds of dust that can block visible light. They also
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  Speaker 2: allow Roman to detect extremely distant objects whose light has
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  Speaker 2: been stretched toward infrared wavelengths as the universe expanded. The
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  Speaker 2: mission has three major areas of investigation. Dark energy, dark matter,
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  Speaker 2: and planets outside our solar system. Dark matter appears to
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  Speaker 2: have gravity, but it doesn't give off or reflect light
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  Speaker 2: in a way we can directly observe. Scientists know something
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  Speaker 2: is there because galaxies and galaxy clusters behave as if
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  Speaker 2: much more matter is present than we can see. It's
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  Speaker 2: like discovering Charlie has been moving things around the control
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  Speaker 2: room overnight. I may not see Charlie doing it, but
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  Speaker 2: the evidence is everywhere. Roman will study how the gravity
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  Speaker 2: of dark matter bends light traveling across the universe. Scientists
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  Speaker 2: can use those tiny distortions to map where the dark
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  Speaker 2: matter is located. The telescope is expected to help produce
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  Speaker 2: one of the most detailed three-dimensional maps ever made of
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  Speaker 2: the universe. Then we have dark energy. Scientists expected the
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  Speaker 2: expansion of the universe to slow down over time because
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  Speaker 2: gravity would pull matter together. Instead, the expansion is accelerating.
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  Speaker 2: Whatever is causing that acceleration has been given the name
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  Speaker 2: dark energy, which is a scientific way of saying we
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  Speaker 2: know something is happening, we don't know what it is,
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  Speaker 2: but the grant application needs a name. Roman will measure
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  Speaker 2: enormous numbers of galaxies and absorb them. thousands of exploding
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  Speaker 2: stars called supernovae. By measuring their distances and how quickly
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  Speaker 2: they are moving away, scientists can study how the universe's
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  Speaker 2: expansion has changed throughout cosmic history. Some of the galaxies
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  Speaker 2: Roman observes will be so distant that their light has
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  Speaker 2: traveled for more than 11 billion years before reaching the telescope.
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  Speaker 2: In that sense, Roman acts like a time machine, because
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  Speaker 2: light takes time to travel. Looking far enough into space
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  Speaker 2: means seeing objects as they existed billions of years ago.
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  Speaker 2: The further away Roman looks, the further back in time
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  Speaker 2: it sees. Roman will also conduct an enormous search for exoplanets,
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  Speaker 2: planets orbiting stars beyond our solar system. NASA expects the
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  Speaker 2: mission's data to reveal about 100,000 new planets, primarily through
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  Speaker 2: the transit method. It could also discover more than 1,000
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  Speaker 2: planets using gravitational microlensing. Microlensing happens when the gravity of
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  Speaker 2: one object bends and magnifies the light of another object.
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  Speaker 2: If a planet is orbiting in front of a star,
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  Speaker 2: the planet can produce its own smaller change in the light.
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  Speaker 2: That little change may reveal a world we couldn't otherwise see.
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  Speaker 2: This method will allow Roman to detect planets that have
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  Speaker 2: been difficult to find, including worlds farther away from their stars,
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  Speaker 2: planets as small as Mars, and possibly rogue planets wandering
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  Speaker 2: through the galaxy without orbiting any star. Imagine an entire
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  Speaker 2: planet drifting through space with no sun, no sunrise, no sunset,
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  Speaker 2: no summer vacation, just cold darkness and apparently no property taxes.
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  Speaker 2: Roman also carries a coronagraph instrument. A coronagraph blocks the
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  Speaker 2: overwhelming glare of a star so the telescope can attempt
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  Speaker 2: to see the much fainter planets orbiting around it. It's
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  Speaker 2: similar to holding your hand in front of the sun
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  Speaker 2: so you can see something nearby, except Roman's version is
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  Speaker 2: considerably more precise than holding up your hand and squinting.
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  Speaker 2: The coronagraph is primarily a technology demonstration. It is intended
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  Speaker 2: to prove techniques that future telescopes may use to directly
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  Speaker 2: photograph smaller, more Earth-like planets. Roman probably will not answer
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  Speaker 2: the question of whether life exists elsewhere, but it could
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  Speaker 2: help develop the tools that eventually do. Roman is not
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  Speaker 2: replacing Hubble or the James Webb Space Telescope. The three
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  Speaker 2: observatories have different strengths. Hubble gives us incredible sharp observations
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  Speaker 2: in visible, ultraviolet, and some infrared light. Webb specializes in
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  Speaker 2: extremely detailed infrared observations and can study faint objects from
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  Speaker 2: the early universe. Roman will provide a wide view. Roman
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  Speaker 2: may survey a huge region and discover millions of interesting objects.
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  Speaker 2: Hubble or Webb can then take a closer look at
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  Speaker 2: selected targets. Roman finds a neighborhood. Webb looks through the window.
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  Speaker 2: Hubble takes the family picture. Charlie calls the police because
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  Speaker 2: apparently we're now spying on the universe. The important point
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  Speaker 2: is that these telescopes complement one another. Roman's enormous surveys
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  Speaker 2: will give astronomers context, showing how individual stars, galaxies, planets,
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  Speaker 2: and black holes fit into the larger cosmic picture. Roman
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  Speaker 2: is now on its way, but we shouldn't expect pictures
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  Speaker 2: tomorrow morning. NASA plans to spend approximately three months deploying equipment,
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  Speaker 2: checking every system, calibrating the instruments, and guiding Roman into
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  Speaker 2: its final orbit around L2. That commissioning period is necessary
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  Speaker 2: because NASA has to be certain that the telescope is
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  Speaker 2: performing exactly as expected before beginning the main scientific mission.
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  Speaker 2: NASA expects to release Roman's first science images in early 2027.
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  Speaker 2: The good news is that Roman scientific data will be
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  Speaker 2: made public as soon as it is processed. There won't
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  Speaker 2: be an exclusion period where one research team keeps the
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  Speaker 2: information to itself. Scientists throughout the world will be able
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  Speaker 2: to examine it. With the amount of information Roman will produce,
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  Speaker 2: discoveries may continue for decades. The telescope could record something
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  Speaker 2: important that nobody notices immediately. Years later, a scientist may
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  Speaker 2: search through the archives, recognize an unusual pattern, and discover
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  Speaker 2: something that changes our understanding of the universe. That has
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  Speaker 2: happened with other observatories. Sometimes we build an instrument to
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  Speaker 2: answer one set of questions and discover questions we never
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  Speaker 2: thought to ask. Sunday morning, I got up, turned on
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  Speaker 2: NASA TV, and caught the countdown with five seconds remaining.
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  Speaker 2: I had almost missed it, but I didn't. I watched
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  Speaker 2: that Falcon Heavy rise from the launch pad carrying a
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  Speaker 2: telescope that may help us understand the invisible structure of
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  Speaker 2: the universe, discover thousands upon thousands of distant worlds, and
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  Speaker 2: show us parts of creation we've never seen before. There's
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  Speaker 2: something humbling about that. Here we are on one small
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  Speaker 2: planet orbiting one ordinary star inside one galaxy among billions.
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  Speaker 2: But we still have problems down here. We still argue
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  Speaker 2: over politics, property lines, lawn height, and whether somebody is
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  Speaker 2: trying to sneak 12 items through the 10 items or
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  Speaker 2: less checkout lane. But every once in a while, we
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  Speaker 2: look up. We build something extraordinary. We place it on
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  Speaker 2: top of a rocket, and we send it a million
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  Speaker 2: miles into space because we want to know what's out there.
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  Speaker 2: The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope represents years of work
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  Speaker 2: and a tremendous amount of money. We should expect NASA
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  Speaker 2: to use it responsibly, operate it transparently, and produce science
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  Speaker 2: worthy of that investment. But today, I'm also willing to
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  Speaker 2: appreciate what just happened. Human beings built a machine capable
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  Speaker 2: of seeing billions of galaxies. Sunday morning, that machine left Earth,
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  Speaker 2: and I was there for all five seconds of it. Charlie,
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  Speaker 2: put that in the official record. I didn't nearly miss
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  Speaker 2: the launch. I arrived precisely when the exciting part started.
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  Speaker 2: And now, like everything else, I'll be waiting for early
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  Speaker 2: 2027 when Roman opens its eyes and begins showing us
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  Speaker 2: the bigger picture. Until next time, keep looking up. And
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  Speaker 2: if NASA is counting down from 10, try to arrive
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  Speaker 2: before they reach 5. Now, this has been a very
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  Speaker 2: fun episode for me to do because I learned a lot.
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  Speaker 2: And that's the whole purpose of this podcast. Come up
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  Speaker 2: with ideas, do the research, learn, and then share. 95%
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  Speaker 2: of the information that came out on this episode, I
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  Speaker 2: had no earthly idea about. But through the research, thanks
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  Speaker 2: to Charlie, I learned a little bit. And I hope
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  Speaker 2: maybe you did too. For some, it may have been boring.
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  Speaker 2: But for a few of you, there might have been
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  Speaker 2: some interest. And the articles that were used in the
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  Speaker 2: research for making this podcast episode have been shared down
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  Speaker 2: in the description. So feel free to go check it
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  Speaker 2: out for yourself. I'm Kevin Stone. This has been the
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  Speaker 2: Kevin Stone Podcast, and I'll talk to you next time.
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  Speaker 2: This concludes our broadcast day. Good night, and God bless America.