Free Astronomy Magazine May-June 2016

SPACE CHRONICLES Space Telescope in 2018. The obser- vatory will survey large regions of the sky in near-infrared light to an- swer fundamental questions about the structure and evolution of the universe, and expand our know- ledge of planets beyond our solar system — known as exoplanets. “As a general-purpose ob- servatory, astronomers will use WFIRST to create pano- ramic views of the uni- verse,” said Jason Kalirai of the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore, Maryland, who is one of the members of the WFIRST For- mulation Science Working Group (FSWG). “These new windows on our solar system, the Milky Way galaxy, and the distant universe will yield funda- mental progress in many astrophysical topics.” WFIRST will carry a wide- field instrument for surveys, and a coronagraph instru- ment designed to block the glare of individual stars and reveal the faint light of plan- ets orbiting around them. By blocking the light of the host star, the coronagraph instrument will enable de- tailed measurements of the chemical makeup of plan- etary atmospheres. Compar- ing these data across many worlds will allow scientists to better understand the origin and physics of these atmospheres, and search for chemical signs of environ- ments suitable for life. “The coronagraph will pro- vide us an entirely new window for the detection of planets around other stars, and for the study of their atmospheres,” said STScI's Ni- kole Lewis, another member of the FSWG. “It will also develop technol- ogy that will pave the way for find- ing and characterizing Earth-like planets in the future.” “WFIRST is designed to address science areas identified as top pri- orities by the astronomical commu- nity,” said Paul Hertz, director of NASA's Astrophysics Division in Washington, D.C. “The wide-field instrument will give the telescope the ability to capture a single image with the depth and quality of Hub- ble, but covering 100 times the area. The coronagraph will provide rev- olutionary science, capturing the faint, but direct images of distant gaseous worlds and super- Earths.” The telescope's sensitivity and wide view will enable a large-scale search for exo- planets by monitoring the brightness of millions of stars in the crowded central region of our galaxy. The survey will net thou- sands of new exoplanets similar in size and distance from their star as those in our own solar system, com- plementing the work start- ed by NASA's Kepler mis- sion and the upcoming work of the Transiting Exo- planet Survey Satellite. Employing multiple tech- niques, astronomers also will use WFIRST to track how dark energy and dark matter have affected the evolution of our universe. Dark energy is a mysterious, negative pressure that has been speeding up the ex- pansion of the universe. Dark matter is invisible ma- terial that makes up most of the matter in our uni- verse. By measuring the distances of thousands of superno- vae, astronomers can map in detail how cosmic ex- pansion has increased with time. WFIRST also can precisely measure the shapes, posi- tions, and distances of millions of galaxies to track the distribution and growth of cosmic structures, including galaxy clusters and the dark matter accompanying them. N ASA officially is beginning work on an astrophysics mission designed to help unlock the secrets of the universe, the Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST). WFIRST is an upcoming space telescope designed to per- form wide-field imaging and spectroscopy of the infrared sky. One of WFIRST's objectives will be looking for clues about dark energy, the mysterious force that is accel- erating the expansion of the universe. Another objective of the mission will be finding and studying exoplanets. These two videos gives us a complete overview of the WFIRST mission. [NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center]