NASA’s Roman coronagraph snaps first test image in space

NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope has taken its first test image with its Coronagraph Instrument. The image was captured on September 22. The agency announced the milestone on September 30.
The coronagraph opened its cameras to cosmic light for the first time. It is designed and built by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. The instrument will block starlight to reveal planets and dusty disks around nearby stars.
The instrument woke up on September 1. Engineers then checked its digital, electronic and mechanical systems. The fine-guidance system passed tests from September 15 to 21. Only after that did scientists adjust the focus.
The first frame shows a single faint star in the Large Magellanic Cloud. The image has noise because the detectors were kept warmer than their final temperature. A second, sharper observation followed on September 27. JPL scientist Vanessa Bailey called it a limited test that starts a methodical process toward future observations.
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