美国航天局的南希·格蕾丝·罗曼太空望远镜即将于本月底发射，这台下一代观测设备将搭载首个空间主动日冕仪，用于消除恒星大部分光线，从而实现对系外行星的直接成像[1]。该望远镜配备两个可变形镜面，每个镜面包含48×48阵列的微型执行器，使其能够将灵敏度相比现有日冕仪提高1000倍[1]。这一精密控制系统可使每个镜面补丁变形高达0.5微米，精度达到约10皮米——约为氢原子直径的十分之一[1]。
罗曼望远镜配备约300百万像素的广视场相机，其拍摄范围是哈勃太空望远镜的100倍[1]。这些技术突破有望使望远镜首次直接观测到真正的木星类似体和类地球行星，预计可直接观测100,000个新系外行星[1]。NASA喷气推进实验室机械工程师Brandon Creager表示："我希望它被记住，作为寻找地球2.0的关键垫脚石"[1]。约翰霍普金斯大学天文学教授Meredith MacGregor指出："我们实际上在看行星，这是超级强大的"[1]。
NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is set to launch later this month equipped with groundbreaking technology designed to directly image exoplanets similar to those in our own solar system [1]. The observatory will carry the first active coronagraph deployed in space, a device capable of suppressing starlight to reveal planets that would otherwise be invisible against their host star's glare [1].
The telescope's dual deformable mirrors represent a major technological leap. Each mirror contains a 48-by-48 array of tiny actuators that can adjust its surface with precision down to approximately 10 picometers—about one-tenth the diameter of a hydrogen atom—allowing individual mirror patches to shift by up to 0.5 micrometers [1]. This level of control is expected to boost sensitivity by a factor of 1,000 compared to existing coronagraphs [1]. Working in concert with a wide-field camera featuring approximately 300 million pixels and capable of capturing images across an area 100 times larger than the Hubble Space Telescope's field of view [1], the Roman telescope is projected to directly observe approximately 100,000 new exoplanets [1].
Brandon Creager, a mechanical engineer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, expressed optimism about the mission's potential, stating: "I hope it's remembered as a key stepping stone in the search for Earth 2.0" [1]. Meredith MacGregor, an astronomy professor at Johns Hopkins University, underscored the significance of the direct observation capability, noting: "We're actually looking at planets, and that's super powerful" [1]. Beyond the Roman telescope, NASA is also proposing the Habitable Worlds Observatory, a future mission designed to isolate the light signatures of Earth-like planets from stars more than 10 billion times brighter [1].