NASA has announced that it is going ahead with plans for its next major space observatory . The Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope ( WFIRST ) will help scientist unlock some of the deepest secrets of the universe .
The telescope will have the same precision and power as the Hubble Space Telescope but with 100 fourth dimension the field of view . It will also be equipped with a coronagraph , an instrument that can stop the light of individual star so that it can look right away at the cool and dim planets around them .
“ WFIRST has the potential difference to open our eye to the wonders of the universe , much the same way Hubble has , ” articulate John Grunsfeld , astronaut and associate administrator of NASA ’s Science Mission Directorate , in astatement .
" This foreign mission unambiguously combines the ability to key and characterise planets beyond our own Solar System with the sensitiveness and optics to look wide and deep into the macrocosm in a pursuit to unpick the mysteries of dark Energy Department and dark thing . ”
The mission is slat to set up in the mid-2020s and will be the agency ’s precedency once theJames Webb Space Telescopelaunches in 2018 . WFIRST will be capable of scaling up the search for exoplanets by monitor the brightness level of millions of star topology . It will complement and lucubrate the work started by Kepler , as it will be able-bodied to directly observe the atmosphere of these exoplanets .
WFIRST will also play a significant role in helping us understand the nature of dark matter and sinister energy . Dark matter is a type of matter that only interacts gravitationally ( so we can not see it ) , and dark energy is the mysterious negative air pressure that is responsible for the expansion of the cosmos .
Dark thing and grim energytogether calculate for 95 pct of the vitality content of the universe , and WFIRST will shed some luminance on them . It will accurately measure how galaxies are distributed in the universe and how quickly they are prompt out from each other , helping constrain the properties of the dismal components of the cosmos .
" In addition to its exciting capabilities for dark energy and exoplanets , WFIRST will furnish a treasure treasure trove of recherche data for all astronomers , " said Neil Gehrels , WFIRST undertaking scientist at NASA ’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt , Maryland . " This mission will survey the cosmos to obtain the most interesting object out there . "
