Ultra-Deep Field Surveys with the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope - A. Koekemoer (STScI) et al.
(Monday, June 5, 9:00–10:00 a.m. MT)
The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope ("Roman" hereafter), planned for launch later this decade, offers Hubble-quality imaging over a field of view about two orders of magnitude beyond that of HST or JWST. This dramatically opens up completely new areas of parameter space for extragalactic deep field science, including cosmology, supernovae, and the evolution of stars, galaxies and supermassive black holes. The Wide Field Instrument (WFI) on Roman has an instantaneous field of view of ~1000 square arcminutes, with higher sensitivity than HST over wavelengths from the optical to the near-IR. This would enable Ultra Deep Field (UDF)-like depths at or beyond those previously obtained, reaching to 30th magnitude or beyond, over an area about 100-200x larger, providing valuable synergies with a variety of HST and JWST surveys of the distant universe. Moreover, wider Roman surveys, on scales of tens to hundreds of square degrees or more, would readily achieve depths comparable to large surveys with HST and JWST, and would also enable multi-epoch supernova science that could be matched in area to the Rubin Deep Drilling fields, Euclid deep fields, or other large survey areas. Finally, achieving UDF-quality imaging over areas 100-200x larger than the current UDF surveys would vastly increase the sample sizes of galaxies in the epoch of reionization, dramatically increasing the discovery potential of these rare populations of galaxies at these earliest epochs of cosmic time.
Roman Optical Telescope Assembly (OTA) integration and performance status - T. Whitman (L3Harris) et al.
(Monday, June 5, 9:00–10:00 a.m. MT)
The OTA for the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope includes the primary mirror, secondary mirror, and aft optics for guiding light into the Wide Field Instrument and the Coronagraph Instrument. The telescope is taking shape integrating the tested optical mirror assemblies. The assemblies have been thermal cycled to the cold temperatures for infrared operation, load tested to launch loads, vibration tested, and optically tested. Pictures and descriptions of the integration and test progress are provided, along with performance results measured at these levels of assemblies with predictions for system-level performance.
The Roman Space Telescope Science Operations Center: Wide Field Instrument Data Processing and Products - T. Desjardins (STScI) et al.
(Tuesday, June 6, 5:30–6:30 p.m. MT)
The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is a 2.4-meter Hubble-class telescope and is NASA's next flagship mission with a launch readiness in October 2026. Roman's Wide Field Instrument (WFI) has 18 Teledyne H4RG-10 detectors totaling 302 megapixels, and will operate between 0.48 and 2.3 microns with wide-band photometry and wide-field slitless spectroscopy modes. With its unprecedented survey power combining a wide field of view (0.32 square degrees), survey depth (~26 – 28 AB magnitudes in imaging mode with 1 hour of exposure time), and high spatial resolution (FWHM ~0.11 – 0.18 arcseconds), Roman will execute both community-designed and general astrophysics surveys expected to yield nearly 20 petabytes of data in its five-year primary mission. The Roman Science Operations Center (SOC) at the Space Telescope Science Institute is responsible for the low-level science calibration data processing of all WFI observation programs, as well as high-level processing of most WFI imaging mode data. In this presentation, we will discuss: 1) the types of data products, i.e., uncalibrated, calibrated, and mosaicked images, as well as catalog data, the SOC plans to generate; 2) the science calibration pipeline (romancal) that will be used to generate those products; 3) the storage and distribution of Roman WFI data products via the Barbara A. Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes (MAST); and 4) how the SOC plans for Roman scientists to work with WFI data in a cloud-based science platform.
The Roman Space Telescope Science Operations Center: News and updates - J. Sanchez (STScI) et al.
(Tuesday, June 6, 5:30–6:30 p.m. MT)
NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope (Roman) launch readiness is planned for October 2026. With expected data rates 500-times larger than HST's, and 23-times larger than JWST's, Roman ushers in new challenges in data handling, processing, and archiving. These data rates are a result of Roman's Wide Field Imager (WFI) providing HST-like spatial resolution in wavelengths ranging from 0.48 to 2.3 microns, over a field of view 200-times larger than HST's at 0.271 sq. deg. The Science Operations Center (SOC), which is housed at the Space Telescope Science Institute, is responsible for building the planning, scheduling, and data processing system for WFI. The SOC is responsible for providing additional data products for the WFI Imaging mode as well. Moreover, all data products will be made available for the community, including science-ready image-level and catalog-level data products. Here we provide an overview of the SOC and the latest SOC news and updates, including data management, RDox, SOC Help Desk, the SOC newsletter, the Roman 2023 Community science conference, and several technical reports documenting the SOC's contributions to the overall progress of the mission.
The Roman Space Telescope Science Operations Center: Simulation Tools - A. Bellini (STScI) et al.
(Tuesday, June 6, 5:30–6:30 p.m. MT)
NASA's next flagship mission, the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope (Roman), is on track to launch in late 2026. The Science Operation Center (SOC) at the Space Telescope Science Institute is supporting the astronomical community in exploring the capabilities of Roman through the development of a suite of simulation tools. Here we present news and updates on currently available tools: (1) Pandeia is a powerful exposure-time calculator that allows calculations of a host of observational settings and configurations; (2) WebbPSF's Roman module produces instrumental Roman point-spread functions with a large suite of tunable parameters; (3) STIPS, the Space Telescope Imaging Product Simulator, can generate complex astronomical scenes based on up-to-date models of the instruments and detector characteristics.
