"Astronomers have found what could become the first target for a crucial test of NASA's upcoming Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, a soon-to-launch observatory that serves as a pathfinder mission for discovering Earthlike worlds around other stars. In a pair of new studies, an international research team has revealed two newfound objects around nearby stars: a gas-giant exoplanet orbiting the star HIP 54515 and a brown dwarf around the star HIP 71618."
"When it soars into orbit as early as next year, Roman will carry an instrument called a coronagraph, which is designed to blot out most of a star's bright glare so that the far fainter light from accompanying planets can be seen. Roman's coronagraph is a critical precursor for more ambitious starlight-blocking hardware planned to fly on another future NASA mission, the Habitable Worlds Observatory, which could launch in the late 2030s to discover, image and study potential Earth twins around dozens of sunlike stars."
Two nearby objects were discovered using new observations from Subaru Telescope's planet-imaging instrument and archival Gaia data: a gas-giant exoplanet orbiting HIP 54515 and a brown dwarf orbiting HIP 71618. The brown dwarf presents a nearby, bright target suitable for testing high-contrast imaging techniques and coronagraph performance. The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will carry a coronagraph designed to suppress stellar glare and reveal much fainter planetary companions and could launch as early as next year. Roman's coronagraph will serve as a critical precursor to starlight-blocking hardware planned for the Habitable Worlds Observatory in the late 2030s.
Read at www.scientificamerican.com
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