WFIRST ain’t your grandma’s space telescope. Despite having the same size mirror as the surprisingly reliable Hubble Space Telescope, clocking in at 2.4 meters across, this puppy will pack a punch with a gigantic 300 megapixel camera, enabling it to snap a single image with an area a hundred times greater than the Hubble.
The WFIRST spacecraft. Image Credit: NASA / Goddard Space Flight Center.
Full podcast episodes: Support: Follow: Follow: on twitter Follow:on Facebook Watch on YouTube: Go on an adventure: What is the cosmological constant? How is the expansion of the universe related to quantum fields? How does a vacuum energy produce accelerated expansion? I discuss these questions and more in today’s Ask a Spaceman! Follow all the show updates at askaspaceman.com, and help support the show at Keep those questions about space, science, astronomy, astrophysics, and cosmology coming to #AskASpaceman on Twitter@PaulMattSutter andFACEBOOK for COMPLETE KNOWLEDGE OF TIME AND SPACE! Music by Jason Grady and Nick Bain. Keep those questions about space, science, astronomy, astrophysics, and cosmology coming to #AskASpaceman on Twitter@PaulMattSutter andFACEBOOK for COMPLETE KNOWLEDGE OF TIME AND SPACE! Music by Jason Grady and Nick Bain. Big thanks to my top Patreon supporters this month: Robert R., Justin G., Matthew K., Kevin O., Justin R., Chris C., Helge B., Tim R., SkyDiving Storm Trooper, Steve P., Lars H., Khaled T., John F., Mark R., David B., John W., and Zero132132! Music by Jason Grady and Nick Bain. Thanks to WCBE Radio for hosting the recording session, Greg Mobius for producing, and Cathy Rinella for editing. Hosted by Paul M. Sutter, astrophysicist at The Ohio State University, Chief Scientist at COSI Science Center, and the one and only Agent to the Stars Paul's website
Full podcast episodes: Support: Follow: Follow: on twitter Follow:on Facebook Watch on YouTube: Go on an adventure: What are the most clever physics and astronomy experiments of all time? What did we learn from them, and what made them so dang clever? I discuss these questions and more in today’s Ask a Spaceman! Follow all the show updates at askaspaceman.com, and help support the show at Keep those questions about space, science, astronomy, astrophysics, and cosmology coming to #AskASpaceman on Twitter@PaulMattSutter andFACEBOOK for COMPLETE KNOWLEDGE OF TIME AND SPACE! Music by Jason Grady and Nick Bain. Keep those questions about space, science, astronomy, astrophysics, and cosmology coming to #AskASpaceman on Twitter@PaulMattSutter andFACEBOOK for COMPLETE KNOWLEDGE OF TIME AND SPACE! Music by Jason Grady and Nick Bain. Big thanks to my top Patreon supporters this month: Robert R., Justin G., Matthew K., Kevin O., Justin R., Chris C., Helge B., Tim R., SkyDiving Storm Trooper, Steve P., Lars H., Khaled T., John F., Mark R., David B., John W., and Zero132132! Music by Jason Grady and Nick Bain. Thanks to WCBE Radio for hosting the recording session, Greg Mobius for producing, and Cathy Rinella for editing. Hosted by Paul M. Sutter, astrophysicist at The Ohio State University, Chief Scientist at COSI Science Center, and the one and only Agent to the Stars Paul's website
In the next decade, NASA will be sending some truly impressive facilities to space. These include the next-generation space telescopes like the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and the Wide-Field Infrared Space Telescope (WFIRST). Building on the foundation established by Hubble, WFIRST will use its advanced suite of instruments to investigate some of the deepest mysteries of the Universe.
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Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/Scott Wiessinger This video is public domain and may be downloaded at:
Artist’s illustration of the exoplanet HR8799e, which was direclty observed using the ESO’s GRAVITY instrument on its Very Large Telescope Interferometer. Image Credit: ESO/L. Calçada
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The Hubble Space Telescope has been in space for 28 years, producing some of the most beautiful and scientifically important images of the cosmos that humanity has ever taken. But let’s face it, Hubble is getting old, and it probably won’t be with us for too much longer. NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope is in the final stages of testing, and WFIRST is waiting in the wings. You’ll be glad to know there are even more space telescopes in the works, a set of four powerful instruments in design right now, which will be part of the next Decadal Survey, and helping to answer the most fundamental questions about the cosmos. Audio Podcast version: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/universe-today-guide-to-space-audio/id794058155?mt=2">ITunes: RSS: Video Podcast version: ITunes: RSS: Sign up to my weekly email newsletter: Support us at:Support us at: Follow us on Tumblr: : More stories at Follow us on Twitter: @universetoday Like us on Facebook: Instagram - Team: Fraser Cain - @fcain / frasercain@gmail.com /Karla Thompson - @karlaii Chad Weber - Chloe Cain - Instagram: @chloegwen2001 Music: Left Spine Down - “X-Ray”
Artist’s impression of circumstellar disk of debris around a distant star. Credit: NASA/JPL
Optical engineer Camilo Mejia Prada shines a light on the interior of the testbed for the WFIRST’s coronagraph at NASA JPL. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Matthew Luem
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Music: "Concept of Motion" from Universe Production Music Based in part on the video by Nick Siegler: Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center Scott Wiessinger (USRA): Lead Producer Francis Reddy (University of Maryland College Park): Science Writer Neil Gehrels (NASA/GSFC): Scientist Krystofer Kim (USRA): Lead Animator Claire Andreoli (NASA/GSFC): Lead Public Affairs Officer This video is public domain and along with other supporting visualizations can be downloaded from the Scientific Visualization Studio at: http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/13325 If you liked this video, subscribe to the NASA Goddard YouTube channel: Follow NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center · Instagram · Twitter · Twitter Facebook: Flickr
When it takes to space in 2025, the Wide-Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST) will be the most powerful observatory ever deployed, succeeding the venerable Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes. Relying on a unique combination of high resolution with a wide field of view, WFIRST will be able to capture the equivalent of 100 Hubble-quality images with a single shot and survey the night sky with 1,000 times the speed.
NASA’s Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope, WFIRST, will capture the equivalent of 100 high-resolution Hubble images in a single shot, imaging large areas of the sky 1,000 times faster than Hubble. In several months, WFIRST could survey as much of the sky in near-infrared light—in just as much detail—as Hubble has over its entire three decades. Although WFIRST has not yet opened its wide, keen eyes on the universe, astronomers are already running simulations to demonstrate what it will be able to see and plan their observations. This simulated image of a portion of our neighboring galaxy Andromeda (M31) provides a preview of the vast expanse and fine detail that can be covered with just a single pointing of WFIRST. Using information gleaned from hundreds of Hubble observations, the simulated image covers a swath roughly 34,000 light-years across, showcasing the red and infrared light of more than 50 million individual stars detectable with WFIRST. While it may appear to be a somewhat haphazard arrangement of 18 separate images, the simulation actually represents a single shot. Eighteen square detectors, 16-megapixels each, make up WFIRST’s Wide Field Instrument (WFI) and give the telescope its unique window into space. With each pointing, WFIRST will cover an area roughly 1⅓ times that of the full Moon. By comparison, each individual infrared Hubble image covers an area less than 1% of the full Moon. WFIRST is designed to collect the big data needed to tackle essential questions across a wide range of topics, including dark energy, exoplanets, and general astrophysics spanning from our solar system to the most distant galaxies in the observable universe. Over its 5-year planned lifetime, WFIRST is expected to amass more than 20 petabytes of information on thousands of planets, billions of stars, millions of galaxies, and the fundamental forces that govern the cosmos. For astronomers like Ben Williams of the University of Washington in Seattle, who generated the simulated data set for this image, WFIRST will provide a valuable opportunity to understand large nearby objects like Andromeda, which are otherwise extremely time-consuming to image because they are so big on the sky. WFIRST could survey Andromeda nearly 1,500 times faster than Hubble, building a panorama of the main disk of the galaxy in just a few hours. Read more: Music credit: "Flight Impressions" from Universal Production Music Credits: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center Scott Wiessinger (USRA): Lead Producer Ben Williams (U. Washington, Seattle): Visualizer Scott Wiessinger (USRA): Narrator This video is public domain and along with other supporting visualizations can be downloaded from NASA Goddard's Scientific Visualization Studio at: If you liked this video, subscribe to the NASA Goddard YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/NASAExplorer"> Follow NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center · Instagram · NASA GADDARD Twitter · NASA GODDARD PICS Twitter · Facebook: · Flickr Category Science & Technology 101 Comments
A composite figure of the Andromeda galaxy (M31) highlights the extremely large field of view of NASA’s upcoming Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST). Credits: DSS/R. Gendler (background); NASA/GSFC/ASU (Moon); NASA/STScI/B. F. Williams/UoW (simulation)
NASA’s Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST) will capture Hubble-quality images covering swaths of sky 100 times larger than Hubble does. Credits: NASA/GSFC/Conceptual Image Lab
One of the main objectives of WFIRST is to study cosmic expansion to determine the role played by Dark Energy. Credit: NASA/GSFC
An artist’s illustration of the exoplanet HR8799e. The ESO’s GRAVITY instrument on its Very Large Telescope Interferometer made the first direct optical observation of this planet and its atmosphere. Credit: ESO/L. Calçada
An artist’s illustration of an exoplanet. WFIRST will use the micro-lensing technique to discover thousands of exoplanets. Image Credit: NASA/STScI