Roman Space Telescope Surveys
Most of Roman’s five-year mission goes to three Core Community Surveys designed in the open by astronomers worldwide — about three-quarters of the Wide Field Instrument’s science time — plus a Galactic Plane Survey and a coronagraph technology demonstration.
High-Latitude Wide-Area Survey
A 3D map of billions of galaxies to measure dark energy
Roman’s broadest survey sweeps thousands of square degrees of sky away from the Milky Way’s dusty plane, imaging and taking spectra of galaxies across most of cosmic history.
HLTDSHigh-Latitude Time-Domain Survey
Thousands of distant exploding stars to trace cosmic expansion
Roman will revisit small patches of sky every few days to catch Type Ia supernovae — standard candles whose brightness reveals how far away they are — out to great distances.
GBTDSGalactic Bulge Time-Domain Survey
A census of planets through gravitational microlensing
Roman will stare toward the crowded heart of the Milky Way, photographing roughly 100 million stars every few minutes to catch the brief brightening when a foreground star — or a lone planet — passes in front of a background star.
GPSGalactic Plane Survey
The first General Astrophysics Survey: a sharp infrared view through the Milky Way’s dust
Early in the mission Roman will image several hundred square degrees along the plane of our galaxy, peering through dust that hides much of the Milky Way at visible wavelengths.
CGICoronagraph Instrument
A technology demonstration for photographing planets around other stars
Roman’s second instrument blocks a star’s glare so the faint reflected light of nearby giant planets and dusty disks can be seen directly.