Why NASA s Roman Mission Will Study Milky Way s Flickering Lights

Why NASAs Roman Mission Will Study Milky Ways Flickering Lights The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will provide one of the deepestever views into the heart of our Milky Way galaxy. It will monitor hundreds of millions of stars in search of telltale flickers that betray the presence of planets, distant stars, small icy objects, black holes, and more. Roman will likely set a new record for the farthestknown exoplanet, offering a glimpse of a different galactic neighborhood that could be home to worlds quite unlike the more than 5, 500 that are currently known. Roman s longterm sky monitoring will enable it to conduct timedomain astronomy, which studies how the universe changes over time. Roman will join a growing, international fleet of observatories working together to capture these changes as they unfold. Roman s Galactic Bulge TimeDomain Survey will focus on the Milky Way, using the telescope s infrared vision to see through clouds of dust that can block our