WFIRST

Space

Meet NASA's Roman Space Telescope, named after the "Mother of Hubble"

NASA has officially named its next planet hunter. Previously known as the Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope, the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is named after NASA’s first chief astronomer, who has often been referred to as the Mother of Hubble.

An optical engineer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in Pasadena, California, Camilo Mejia Prada, shines a light on the interior of a testbed for an instrument called a coronagraph that will fly aboard the WFIRST space telescope

Space

WFIRST space telescope "starglasses" to help study exoplanets

A major component of NASA's WFIRST space telescope reached a major milestone as its advanced coronagraph passed its preliminary design review.

Artist's impression of the WFIRST orbital telescope

Space

Future NASA telescope could discover 1,400 new exoplanets

A new study has projected that a future NASA telescope could be capable of discovering up to 1,400 new worlds. The orbital telescope, which has been nicknamed WFIRST, will build on the legacy of earlier missions to answer fundamental questions surrounding the nature of the universe.

Artist's concept of the WFIRST telescope

Space

NASA forges ahead with next major space telescope

NASA has taken the wraps off its next major astrophysics mission with the unveiling of its Wide Field InfraRed Survey Telescope (WFIRST) - a new orbital instrument with a field of view 100 times bigger than the Hubble Space Telescope.