In just a few days, the universe is set for a massive expansion—at least to human eyes.
On Sunday, NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is slated to launch from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Named after the agency’s first chief astronomer and its first female executive, the Roman Telescope is the next step in a technology evolution that builds on previous space telescopes like the James Webb and the Hubble.
The Roman will travel a million miles into space with a mission to measure light from a billion galaxies, discover thousands of planets orbiting distant stars and revolutionize our understanding of the universe with a panorama of vivid, detailed images.
“Over the first five years of observation, Roman will image more than 50 times as much sky as Hubble covered in 30 years,” said Associate Professor of Astrophysics Sylvain Guiriec, a longtime collaborator with NASA scientists through the Space Act Agreement, a partnership that promotes university faculty and student research at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.
And Zane Pennella, a third-year astrophysics Ph.D. student, is at the center of the latest flight to the stars.
Assisted by Guiriec and Jeremy Perkins, Roman’s observatory integration and test scientist, Pennella joined thousands of scientists, engineers, technicians and data experts working on components of the telescope. Since last spring, Pennella has helped test equipment on the ground to make sure it works in space.
“GW has been a great partner with NASA astrophysics. Working with Zane on Roman is a prime example of this—commissioning a space telescope is complicated, and we basically need all-hands on deck to dig into the data,” Perkins said. “This work will be a critical underlying piece of the flagship level science we’ll do with Roman.”
For a student who spent his Pennsylvania childhood captivated by the cosmos, Pennella calls working at NASA his dream job. “There aren’t many people who are interested in astronomy who don’t think NASA is the end goal,” he said.
In an interview with GW Today, Pennella discussed what makes the Roman so unique, how his work fits into the next chapter of space exploration and where he’ll be when the telescope takes to the skies.
Q: As the Roman launch approaches, can you give me an idea of what makes the telescope so special? Just how big a leap is it from the Hubble?
A: Roman is the true Hubble sequel—and it’s a vast improvement.
The biggest advantage with Roman is the very large field of view increase—at least 100 times larger than Hubble. That basically means the amount of sky coverage you can see in any particular image. If the Hubble covers an area, let’s say, the size of a billiard ball, the Roman’s field is like a beach ball.
As a survey telescope, it observes the sky and, if it picks up something interesting, it signals telescopes that might have more specialized viewing equipment to zoom in and take a closer look. It will also be able to block starlight so it can directly see exoplanets. Those are Earth-like planets that could potentially be habitable.
Q: Can you tell me about your role in the Roman project?
A: I am working on commissioning tasks—that means ensuring the physical instrumentation on the telescope is working the way we expect before space operations start.
Of course, there is a lot of ground-based testing, but it’s another thing entirely to actually be in space. So we have models of how we expect a piece of equipment to react. And once Roman launches, we can see if our ground-based models agree with what we actually see in space.
Essentially, we work out all the kinks so the public and the general science community are able to have good data when the telescope is in space.
Q: Does it feel like you’re working on one piece of a larger puzzle?
A: Definitely. It’s all very collaborative.
In my case, what I do is data science. Most of my day is spent running simulated data through code pipelines. There are so many other different tasks, and a lot of them are interconnected. There are engineers who actually do the instrumentation and make sure that the physical telescope works as expected. That’s impressive! But my little piece might contribute to someone else’s testing. The whole commissioning team is very much a joint effort because we all want to make sure that each other’s projects are working as expected and that the overall team is on the same page.
Q: How did space become your area of interest? Did you always want to be an astronaut?
A: I’ve always thought space was super cool. As a kid, I liked sci-fi. My favorite movie is “Back to the Future.” That led to astronomy classes in high school. One of the reasons I chose GW was its proximity to NASA Goddard and the strong connection between the two.
But I have no interest in being an astronaut. I’m perfectly content staying safely on the ground and looking through telescopes. Just looking at those amazing space pictures reminds you of all that is out there—and how we’re just this one tiny little planet.
Q: Are you excited to watch the launch?
A: I’ll be streaming it like everybody else!
For me, the exciting thing about the launch is that we’ll be one step closer to seeing if all of the stuff that me and so many other people have worked on for years will come to fruition.
But then it’s right back to work. Once the telescope launches, we’ll start getting data. We’ll be able to see if my pipeline works with actual data and not just the simulated kind. And I will be using observations from Roman for my thesis. So in a way, I’m just getting started.
Live coverage of the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope launch is scheduled to begin approximately one hour before the 7:26 a.m. liftoff on Sunday, Aug. 30. It will be livestreamed on various outlets including NASA’s website and YouTube channel.