Announcements

IRSA Newsletter: Issue 2023.4

Project News • May 24th, 2023

The latest IRSA Newsletter has information about ZTF Data Release 17, COSMOS2020 Catalog Release, availability of data from the IRTF/TEXES instrument, and IRSA Viewer updates.

NASA Completes Heart of Roman Space Telescope’s Primary Instrument

Project News • May 16th, 2023

The heart of NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope was recently delivered to Ball Aerospace in Boulder, Colorado, for integration into the WFI (Wide Field Instrument). Called the FPS (Focal Plane System), it serves as the core of Roman’s camera.

Caught in the Act: Astronomers Detect a Star Devouring a Planet

Project News • May 3rd, 2023

A new study published online Wednesday, May 3, in the journal Nature documents the first observation of an aging star swallowing a planet. After running out of fuel in its core, the star began to grow in size, shrinking the gap with its neighboring planet, eventually consuming it entirely.

Framework for NASA’s Roman Spacecraft Moves to Goddard Clean Room

Project News • April 26th, 2023

The primary structure that will serve as the “bones” of NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope has moved into the big clean room at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. The spacecraft bus, Roman’s primary support element, will now be built upon this skeletal framework.

The Young Cluster of Galaxies at the Edge of the Universe

IPAC News • April 26th, 2023

Takahiro Morishita, a staff scientist at IPAC, was first author on a paper using JWST data to look back in time to the early beginnings of the universe, a mere 650 million years after the Big Bang. and observe the baby stages of seven interacting galaxies forming into a protocluster. This...

Goddard Team Builds, Tests Calibrator for NASA’s Roman in Record Time

Project News • April 19th, 2023

A vital subsystem for NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope was recently delivered to Ball Aerospace in Boulder, Colorado, and installed in the spacecraft’s Wide Field Instrument (WFI). Called the Simplified Relative Calibration System (sRCS), this component will allow astronomers to measure...

IPAC Selects Ben Rusholme As Its First Chief Engineer

IPAC News • April 17th, 2023

IPAC is pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Benjamin Rusholme to serve in the new and inaugural role of Chief Engineer at IPAC.

NEOWISE 2023 Data Release

Project News • March 22nd, 2023

The Near-Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (NEOWISE) and IPAC at the California Institute of Technology announce the NEOWISE 2023 Data Release.

Millions of Galaxies Emerge in New Simulated Images From NASA's Roman

Project News • March 8th, 2023

Scientists have created a gargantuan synthetic survey that shows what we can expect from the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope’s future observations. Though it represents just a small chunk of the real future survey, this simulated version contains a staggering number of galaxies – 33 million of...

How NASA’s Roman Space Telescope Will Rewind the Universe

Project News • March 1st, 2023