The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope
The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, launching by mid-2027, is NASA’s next major observatory, designed to tackle dark energy, discover thousands of exoplanets via microlensing and direct imaging, and conduct vast infrared surveys with a field of view 100 times larger than Hubble’s. It’s not “better” than the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), but rather complementary: while JWST excels at deep, detailed observations of small regions, Roman will provide the wide-area surveys needed for large-scale cosmological studies and comprehensive exoplanet censuses, enabling a broader understanding of the universe.
Speaker – Dr Rob Zellem
Dr. Rob Zellem is an astrophysicist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, with a focus on characterising the atmospheres of exoplanets (planets outside our solar system) using both transit and direct imaging methods. He is a Deputy Project Scientist for NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, which is a new space telescope project aimed at directly imaging exoplanets and exploring dark energy and infrared astrophysics. He’s also part of the Roman Coronagraph Project Science team, where he led the development of its science calibration plan. While he is involved with current and near-future missions like the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), his primary roles are with the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope. Beyond his work on major space telescopes, Dr. Zellem is also the Project Scientist and Lead for Exoplanet Watch, a citizen science project that helps observe transiting exoplanets. He’s also a co-lead for NASA’s Nexus for Exoplanet System Science (NExSS) and a science team member for NASA’s CASE contribution to ESA’s Ariel mission. Rob holds a PhD in Planetary Science from the University of Arizona, an MSc in Space Science from University College London, and a Bachelor of Science in Astronomy and Astrophysics from Villanova University.