NASA's Roman telescope will find and follow up on kilonovae - titanic explosions caused by collision of most massive stars

NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, a survey telescope scheduled for launch by May 2027, will scan for kilonovae - titanic explosions that take place when the densest, most massive stars collide, helping astronomers better identify how often these events occur, how much energy they give off, and how near or far they are.

Following its launch, Roman will repeatedly scan the same areas of the sky every few days. According to NASA, the telescope's field of view is 200 times larger than the Hubble Space Telescope's infrared view, helping astronomers identify more of these spectacular events, both nearby and very far away.

Since NASA's Roman specializes in capturing near-infrared light, it will detect light from very distant objects.

Plus, near-infrared light provides more time to observe these short-lived bursts. While shorter wavelengths of light, such as ultraviolet and visible, disappear from view in a day or two, near-infrared light can be gathered for a week or more.

"Roman will be able to see some kilonovae whose light has traveled about 7 billion years to reach Earth," explained Eve Chase, a postdoctoral researcher at Los Alamos National Laboratory in Los Alamos, New Mexico.

Using the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, researchers will know far more about where kilonovae occur, and how often these explosions occur in the history of the universe. Were those that occurred earlier different in some way?

Data gathered by the telescope will help researchers unravel perhaps the greatest mysteries about kilonovae to date: What happens after two neutron stars - the key actors in kilonovae - collide? Does it produce a single neutron star, a black hole, or something else entirely?

You've probably heard of supernovae, but what about kilonovae? These titanic explosions happen when the densest, most massive stars collide. Roman will both find and follow up on kilonovae, helping us learn more about how heavy elements are made. https://t.co/G9pMQ9ATbL pic.twitter.com/wppLDSUxg4

— Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope (@NASARoman) November 3, 2022