Project News

NASA Telescope Named For ‘Mother of Hubble’ Nancy Grace Roman

Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope • Project News • May 20th, 2020

NASA is naming its next-generation space telescope currently under development, the Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST), in honor of Nancy Grace Roman, NASA’s first chief astronomer, who paved the way for space telescopes focused on the broader universe.

A Tale of Two Telescopes: WFIRST and Hubble

Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope • Project News • April 20th, 2020

NASA’s Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST), planned for launch in the mid-2020s, will create enormous cosmic panoramas. Using them, astronomers will explore everything from our solar system to the edge of the observable universe, including planets throughout our galaxy and the nature of...

SPHEREx team releases instrument performance specifications

SPHEREx • News Release • April 1st, 2020

The SPHEREx team is making these files defining the instrument performance specifications publicly available to the community.

Warped Space-time to Help WFIRST Find Exoplanets

Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope • Project News • March 30th, 2020

To date, astronomers have found most planets when they pass in front of their host star in events called transits, which temporarily dim the star's light. WFIRST data can spot transits too, but the mission will primarily watch for microlensing.

NEOWISE 2020 Data Release

Near-Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer • Project News • March 26th, 2020

The NEOWISE Reactivation 2020 Release adds approximately 2.5 million image sets and 18.7 billion source detections to the public archive. These data were acquired during the sixth year of the NEOWISE Reactivation Mission.

NASA Approves Development of Universe-Studying, Planet-Finding Mission

Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope • Project News • March 2nd, 2020

NASA’s Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST) project has passed a critical programmatic and technical milestone, giving the mission the official green light to begin hardware development and testing.

20200213_spherex_anniversary_science_cakes

SPHEREx celebrates one-year anniversary of selection

SPHEREx • News Release • February 13th, 2020

Our birthday! The SPHEREx team celebrated the one-year anniversary of selection with three cakes decorated in honor of the three SPHEREx science themes. They were lovingly baked by Project Manager Allen Farrington. There was disagreement within the team as to which was was the most delicious....

First Asteroid Found Inside Orbit of Venus

ZTF • News Release • January 15th, 2020

A rare asteroid orbiting snugly within the inner confines of our solar system has been discovered by Caltech's Zwicky Transient Facility, or ZTF, a survey camera based at Palomar Observatory. The newfound body, named 2020 AV2, is the first asteroid found to orbit entirely within the...

Ztf-asteroid_orbit_around_ve.2e16d0ba.fill-1600x810-c100

First Asteroid Found Inside Orbit of Venus

ZTF • News Release • January 15th, 2020

Probing the Hubble Constant with NASA's WFIRST

Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope • Project News • January 10th, 2020

Discrepancies in the Hubble constant, which describes how fast the universe is expanding, have vexed astronomers for years. Values predicted from observations of the early universe simply don’t match up to measurements of the modern universe.

NASA Telescope Named For ‘Mother of Hubble’ Nancy Grace Roman

Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope • May 20th, 2020

NASA is naming its next-generation space telescope currently under development, the Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST), in honor of Nancy Grace Roman, NASA’s first...

A Tale of Two Telescopes: WFIRST and Hubble

Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope • April 20th, 2020

NASA’s Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST), planned for launch in the mid-2020s, will create enormous cosmic panoramas. Using them, astronomers will explore everything...

SPHEREx team releases instrument performance specifications

SPHEREx • April 1st, 2020

The SPHEREx team is making these files defining the instrument performance specifications publicly available to the community.

Warped Space-time to Help WFIRST Find Exoplanets

Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope • March 30th, 2020

To date, astronomers have found most planets when they pass in front of their host star in events called transits, which temporarily dim the star's light. WFIRST data can spot...

NEOWISE 2020 Data Release

Near-Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer • March 26th, 2020

The NEOWISE Reactivation 2020 Release adds approximately 2.5 million image sets and 18.7 billion source detections to the public archive. These data were acquired during the...

NASA Approves Development of Universe-Studying, Planet-Finding Mission

Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope • March 2nd, 2020

NASA’s Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST) project has passed a critical programmatic and technical milestone, giving the mission the official green light to begin...

SPHEREx celebrates one-year anniversary of selection

SPHEREx • February 13th, 2020

Our birthday! The SPHEREx team celebrated the one-year anniversary of selection with three cakes decorated in honor of the three SPHEREx science themes. They were lovingly baked...

First Asteroid Found Inside Orbit of Venus

ZTF • January 15th, 2020

A rare asteroid orbiting snugly within the inner confines of our solar system has been discovered by Caltech's Zwicky Transient Facility, or ZTF, a survey camera based at...

First Asteroid Found Inside Orbit of Venus

ZTF • January 15th, 2020

A rare asteroid orbiting snugly within the inner confines of our solar system has been discovered by Caltech's Zwicky Transient Facility, or ZTF, a survey camera based at...

Probing the Hubble Constant with NASA's WFIRST

Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope • January 10th, 2020

Discrepancies in the Hubble constant, which describes how fast the universe is expanding, have vexed astronomers for years. Values predicted from observations of the early...