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Testing tiny telescope robots reveals design changes that could improve galaxy maps
Confirmed
In Short: Spanish astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope observed changes in Chariklo's rings, revealing a more dynamic system than previously thought.
Spanish astronomers have used the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to observe changes in the rings of Chariklo, a minor planet in the outer Solar System.
Lead researcher Pablo Santos-Sanz noted that the team's observations in 2022 revealed changes in each of Chariklo's rings that were opposite from what they had seen in previous studies.
The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, launched recently, is expected to provide even more detailed observations of exoplanets and other celestial bodies.
The Roman Telescope, now on its way to deep space, will conduct its primary science mission for five years and is designed to support an additional five-year extended mission.
The Roman Telescope's coronagraph will enable unprecedented sensitivity in observing exoplanets, potentially revealing smaller, rocky planets.
The JWST and Roman Telescope are set to transform our understanding of the cosmos, from distant galaxies to objects within our solar system.
Anastasia Morgan, a Northern Arizona University PhD candidate, led a study that used the JWST to observe the smallest Trans-Neptunian Objects (TNOs), which are about five times smaller than what ground-based telescopes can detect.
What this adds
The observations of Chariklo's rings provide new insights into the dynamics of ring systems around minor planets.
The Roman Telescope's launch marks a significant step in deepening our understanding of the universe's mysteries, including dark matter and dark energy.
What's confirmed
- “Achieving this required knowing with extraordinary precision the orbit of Chariklo, the position of the star—thanks to ESA’s Gaia mission—and the trajectory of JWST,” said study co-author Yücel Kilic, a postdoctoral researcher at the IAA-CSIC, noting the telescope’s position approximately 1.5 million kilometers from Earth at the L2 Lagrange point, close to where NASA’s newly-launched Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is not also positioned in orbit.
What's still developing
- On October 18, 2022, one of these observations commenced as astronomers with the Institute of Astrophysics of Andalusia (IAA-CSIC) peered at Chariklo’s rings with the Webb telescope during another stellar occultation.
- Thanks to the extreme sensitivity of the JWST's instruments, the data revealed minute brightness changes as the planet rotates, linked to changing weather patterns.
- This method helped the team identify the key processes in the data, revealing an atmosphere whose observed changes can be explained by three recurring weather patterns, producing hotter areas with thinner clouds and cooler areas with thicker, vertically extended clouds.
- When the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope becomes operational in the coming weeks, astronomers expect to directly image smaller exoplanets orbiting closer to their stars, where rocky, Earth-like planets are likely to be found.
- Using data from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), an international team of researchers decoded the weather on a distant exoplanet.
- Neptune’s tiny moons may be ancient wreckage, preserving material exposed when a catastrophic event shattered much larger icy worlds.
- Five of them are tiny satellites that travel just beyond the planet’s main rings.
- “The telescope will provide a vast new atlas of the universe,” Isaacman said.
- The telescope’s main survey will take more than a year, McEnery said at the Saturday press event—and its scale is incomparable.
- NASA’s Roman Telescope lifts off, starting a mission to explore the universe’s biggest mysteries The Nancy Grace Roman Telescope will probe dark matter and dark energy, discover exoplanets and study stars NASA’s newest telescope is officially on its way to deep space after more than a decade of development and high anticipation.
- Onboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket, the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope lifted off from Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 7:26 A.M.
- In the next weeks, the telescope’s instruments will be calibrated and turned on as it travels to its point in space.