NASA’s Roman telescope could help track hazardous asteroids

NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, scheduled to launch from Kennedy Space Center at the end of August, is primarily aimed at studying dark matter, dark energy, planets, supernovas and galaxies. A team of planetary scientists and astronomers plans to show that its wide infrared view could also support planetary defense by spotting asteroids and helping estimate their paths, sizes and compositions.

Roman’s super-wide-angle, 300-megapixel infrared camera can view a patch of space roughly 100 times larger than Hubble’s, making it useful for scanning through the solar system while it observes deeper cosmic targets. Researchers say it could detect small asteroids up to 60 feet long, though its software would need adjustments because streaks from asteroids are currently treated like cosmic rays or glitches and discarded.

Roman would not replace NASA’s dedicated asteroid-hunting systems, including the Near-Earth Object (NEO) Surveyor space telescope planned for 2027. Instead, it could work with NEO Surveyor, the James Webb Space Telescope and the Vera Rubin Observatory by rapidly checking multiple uncertain targets, refining orbital estimates from a different vantage point and identifying which objects deserve scarce follow-up time.

Infrared observations could also help distinguish whether an asteroid is stony, carbon-rich or metallic, improving estimates of density, mass and potential impact damage. NASA’s planetary defense network is especially focused on asteroids 460 feet long and larger, with around 25,000 estimated in near-Earth orbits and just over half still undiscovered.