News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:SpaceX exploring mission to boost Hubble by Sharlin on Wednesday October 05, 2022 @01:24PM (#33098480)
We're going to have another Hubble up in 2027 if all goes well: the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, or Roman for short. Originally known as WFIRST, it's a 1.6m-primary-mirror declassified Keyhole spy sat similar to Hubble, but with a shorter focal length and thus a much wider field of view (around 1/4 square degrees, roughly the area of a full moon). Still, its angular resolution will be comparable to Hubble thanks to a much higher-resolution, 300 megapixel imager. It's a visible/near IR instrument, so won't replace Hubble's near UV capabilities. Also, Roman won't have a traditional spectrograph on board. What it will have, however, is a novel coronagraphic instrument for imaging and spectrography of companions of nearby stars (brown dwarfs and gas giants in wide orbits -- still no imaging exo-Earths or even exo-Jupiters, alas).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nancy_Grace_Roman_Space_Telesc...

https://roman.gsfc.nasa.gov/why_Roman_Space_Telescope.html

Re:SpaceX exploring mission to boost Hubble by causi on Wednesday October 05, 2022 @03:06PM (#33099922)
Why do they call it an infrared telescope when it doesn't see in the infrared spectrum?
Re:SpaceX exploring mission to boost Hubble by Someone on Wednesday October 05, 2022 @04:12PM (#33100708)
It sees the near infrared. I expect they got that for free from the camera sensor. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infrared_photography#Digital_c...:

“Digital camera sensors are inherently sensitive to infrared light, which would interfere with the normal photography by confusing the autofocus calculations or softening the image (because infrared light is focused differently from visible light), or oversaturating the red channel. Also, some clothing is transparent in the infrared, leading to unintended (at least to the manufacturer) uses of video cameras”

Re:SpaceX exploring mission to boost Hubble by Sharlin on Wednesday October 05, 2022 @03:53PM (#33100495)
It does in near IR, but yeah, it’s as much a visible light telescope as an IR one.