A new image from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope of a portion of the Helix Nebula highlights comet-like knots, fierce stellar winds, and layers of gas shed off by a dying star interacting with its surrounding environment. Webb’s image also shows the stark transition between the hottest gas to the coolest gas as the shell expands out from the central white dwarf.
NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI; Image Processing: Alyssa Pagan (STScI)
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has zoomed into the Helix Nebula to give an up-close view of the possible eventual fate of our own Sun and planetary system. In Webb’s high-resolution look, the structure of the gas being shed off by a dying star comes into full focus. The image reveals how stars recycle their material back into the cosmos, seeding future generations of stars and planets, as NASA explores the secrets of the universe and our place in it.
In the image from Webb’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera), pillars that look like comets with extended tails trace the circumference of the inner region of an expanding shell of gas. Here, blistering winds of fast-moving hot gas from the dying star are crashing into slower moving colder shells of dust and gas that were shed earlier in its life, sculpting the nebula’s remarkable structure.
NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is now assembled following the integration of its two major segments, shown in this time-lapse.
Credits: NASA/Sophia Roberts
Technicians have completed the construction of NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope.
The Roman observatory is slated to launch no later than May 2027, with the team aiming for as early as fall 2026. The mission will revolutionize our understanding of the universe with its deep, crisp, sweeping views of space.
More than a thousand technicians and engineers assembled Roman from millions of individual components. Many parts were built and tested simultaneously to save time. Now that the observatory is assembled, it will undergo a spate of testing prior to shipping to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida in summer 2026.
NASA’s freshly assembled Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will revolutionize our understanding of the universe with its deep, crisp, sweeping infrared views of space. The mission will transform virtually every branch of astronomy and bring us closer to understanding the mysteries of dark energy, dark matter, and how common planets like Earth are throughout our galaxy. Roman is on track for launch by May 2027, with teams working toward a launch as early as fall 2026. Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
Telescope
The Optical Telescope Assembly is the heart of the Roman observatory. It consists of a primary mirror, which was designed and built at L3Harris Technologies in Rochester, New York, plus nine additional mirrors and supporting structures and electronics.
The Roman team got a jumpstart by receiving the telescope’s primary mirror, which will collect and focus light from cosmic objects near and far, from another government agency and then modifying it to meet NASA’s needs. Using this mirror, Roman will capture stunning space vistas with a field of view at least 100 times larger than Hubble’s.
Roman will peer through dust and across vast stretches of space and time to study the universe using infrared light, which human eyes can’t see. The amount of detail these observations will reveal is directly related to the size of the telescope’s mirror, since a larger surface gathers more light and measures finer features. Roman’s primary mirror is 7.9 feet (2.4 meters) across, the same size as the Hubble Space Telescope’s main mirror but less than one-fourth the weight (410 pounds, or 186 kilograms) thanks to major improvements in technology.
“The telescope will be the foundation of all of the science Roman will do, so its design and performance are among the largest factors in the mission’s survey capability.”
Josh Abel
lead Optical Telescope Assembly systems engineer at NASA Goddard
The Roman team modified the inherited mirror’s shape and surface to meet the mission’s science objectives. The mirror sports a layer of silver less than 400 nanometers thick — about 200 times thinner than a human hair. The silver coating was specifically chosen for Roman because of how well it reflects near-infrared light. Roman’s mirror is so finely polished that the average bump on its surface is only 1.2 nanometers tall — more than twice as smooth as the mission requires. If the mirror were scaled to be Earth’s size, these bumps would be just a quarter of an inch high. NASA/Chris Gunn
Roman’s secondary mirror, photographed here, is 22 inches across. It’s a critical part of the forward structure assembly, which also includes the support structure. NASA/Chris Gunn
An optical technician lays on a diving board suspended between NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope’s primary and secondary mirrors. The photo is a projected reflection through the telescope’s optical path. The technician shines a beam of light through the optical system toward the future location of the Wide Field Instrument, showing how light from cosmic sources will travel through the telescope once the mission launches. NASA/Chris Gunn
Optical engineer Bente Eegholm inspects the surface of Roman’s primary mirror. NASA/Chris Gunn
The primary mirror, in concert with other optics, will send light to Roman’s two science instruments: the Wide Field Instrument and Coronagraph Instrument. When light enters Roman’s 2.4-meter aperture, it will be reflected and focused by the curved primary mirror and then reflected and focused once more by the secondary mirror. Then, light from different parts of the sky splits off toward each instrument, so Roman will be able to use both at once.
The telescope was delivered Nov. 7, 2024, to the largest clean room at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.
Upon arrival at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Roman’s Optical Telescope Assembly was lifted out of the shipping fixture and placed with other mission hardware in Goddard’s largest clean room. Then, it was installed onto Roman’s Instrument Carrier, a structure that will keep the telescope and Roman’s two instruments optically aligned. NASA/Sydney Rohde
Detectors
Meanwhile, technicians at Goddard and Teledyne Scientific & Imaging were developing the detector array. This device will convert starlight into electrical signals, which will then be decoded into 288-megapixel images of large patches of the sky. The combination of Roman’s fine resolution and enormous images has never been possible on a space-based telescope before.
Roman uses state-of-the-art sensors that build on the legacy of the infrared detectors in NASA’s Hubble and Webb instruments. Roman’s focal plane, however, is much larger to capture a much larger field of view.
Greg Mosby
research astrophysicist at NASA Goddard
The detectors, each the size of a saltine cracker, have 16 million tiny pixels apiece, providing the mission with exquisite image resolution. Eighteen were incorporated into the focal plane array for Roman’s camera, and another six are reserved as flight-qualified spares.
Detector Array
Detector Array
NASA/Chris Gunn
NASA/Chris Gunn
NASA/Chris Gunn
NASA/Chris Gunn
Detector Array
Detector Array
Roman’s Detectors
Mosaic Plate Assembly
Most telescopes are designed to focus incoming light toward a central point, so their view is sharpest in the middle. By tweaking the curvatures and tilts of three mirrors, Roman focuses light instead onto a ring around the center. The detectors in Roman’s Wide Field Instrument are laid out in an arch shape to sit along part of that ring. This design helps Roman capture a much wider area with equally sharp imaging. And since the observatory’s Coronagraph is placed on another part of the ring, both instruments can operate simultaneously while benefiting from the telescope’s best resolution. Credit: NASA/Chris Gunn
Principal technician Billy Keim installs a cover plate over the detectors for NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope. Credit: NASA/Chris Gunn
Once complete and tested, the detector array was inserted into the mission’s primary instrument: a sophisticated camera called the Wide Field Instrument, which was assembled and tested at Goddard and BAE Systems, Inc.
Wide Field Instrument
The Wide Field Instrument, or WFI, is an infrared camera that will give Roman the same angular resolution as Hubble but with a field of view at least 100 times larger. Its sweeping cosmic surveys will help scientists discover new and uniquely detailed information about planets beyond our solar system, untangle mysteries like dark energy, and map how matter is structured and distributed throughout the cosmos. The mission’s broad, crisp view will produce an extraordinary resource for a wide range of additional investigations.
Using this instrument, each Roman image will capture a patch of the sky bigger than the apparent size of a full moon. The mission will gather data hundreds of times faster than Hubble, adding up to 20,000 terabytes (20 petabytes) over the course of its five-year primary mission.
This photo shows Roman’s Wide Field Instrument arriving at the big clean room at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. About the size of a commercial refrigerator, this instrument will help astronomers explore the universe’s evolution and the characteristics of worlds outside our solar system. Unlocking these cosmic mysteries and more will offer a better understanding of the nature of the universe and our place within it. NASA/Chris Gunn
Technicians install Roman’s Wide Field Instrument in the biggest clean room at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. This marked the final step to complete the Roman payload, which also includes a Coronagraph instrument and the Optical Telescope Assembly. NASA/Chris Gunn
After completing final integration, Ball Aerospace technicians transport the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope’s Wide Field Instrument (WFI) into Ball’s largest thermal vacuum chamber to begin environmental testing at a Ball facility in Boulder, Colorado. Ball Aerospace
Technicians from both BAE and Goddard put the WFI together in a clean room in Boulder, Colorado. Then the team completed full environmental testing in space-like conditions and delivered the WFI to Goddard in summer 2024. It was joined to other observatory systems the following winter.
Coronagraph Instrument
Technicians at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory built the Coronagraph Instrument. The Coronagraph will demonstrate new technologies for directly imaging planets around other stars. It will block the glare from distant stars and make it easier for scientists to see the faint light from planets in orbit around them. The Coronagraph aims to photograph worlds and dusty disks around nearby stars in visible light to help us see giant worlds that are older, colder, and in closer orbits than the hot, young super-Jupiters direct imaging has mainly revealed so far.
The coronagraph team will conduct a series of pre-planned observations for three months spread across the mission’s first year-and-a-half of operations, after which the mission may conduct additional observations based on scientific community input.
The Roman Coronagraph was integrated with the Instrument Carrier in a clean room at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., in October 2024. NASA/Sydney Rohde
April 9, 2025The Roman Coronagraph was peppered with radio waves to test its response to stray electrical signals. The test was performed inside a chamber lined with foam padding that absorbs the radio waves to prevent them from bouncing off the walls. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech. NASA/JPL-Caltech
PIA26273
This photo features the optical bench for Roman’s Coronagraph Instrument. Light from the telescope will be directed to the optical bench and pass through series of lenses, filters, and other components that ultimately suppress light from a star while allowing the light from orbiting planets to pass through. Mirrors redirect the light and keep it contained within the optical bench. In this image, the bench was partly assembled at the start of the instrument’s integration and testing period. The large black circles are surrogate components that were standing in for the actual instrument hardware. NASA/JPL-Caltech
By 2025, all of Roman’s components were complete and undergoing testing as subsystems. Technicians installed test versions of the Solar Array Sun Shield panels onto the Outer Barrel Assembly — a part of the observatory that will protect and shade the primary mirror — inside Goddard’s largest clean room in preparation for testing.
The team covered Roman’s telescope section in a protective tent and pushed it out of the clean room using pressurized air to float it like a hovercraft. Then they lifted it onto a shaker table for vibration testing to simulate launch stress. Then, technicians moved the components into the Space Environment Simulator chamber for a month of testing at low pressure and different temperatures, mimicking space-like conditions.
Solar Panels
Roman’s Solar Array Sun Shield is made up of six panels, each covered in solar cells. The two central panels will remain fixed to the Outer Barrel Assembly while the other four will deploy once Roman is in space, swinging up to align with the center panels.
The panels will spend the entirety of the mission facing the Sun to provide a steady supply of power to the observatory’s electronics. This orientation will also shade much of the observatory and help keep the instruments cool, which is critical for an infrared observatory. Since infrared light is detectable as heat, excess warmth from the spacecraft’s own components would saturate the detectors and effectively blind the telescope.
In this photo, technicians install solar panels onto the outer portion of the Roman observatory. Roman’s inner portion is in the background just left of center. NASA/Sydney Rohde
The Roman solar panels are covered in a total of 3,902 solar cells that will convert sunlight directly into electricity much like plants convert sunlight to chemical energy. When tiny bits of light, called photons, strike the cells, some of their energy transfers to electrons within the material. This jolt excites the electrons, which start moving more or jump to higher energy levels. In a solar cell, excited electrons create electricity by breaking free and moving through a circuit, sort of like water flowing through a pipe. The panels are designed to channel that energy to power the observatory. Credit: NASA/Sydney Rohde
Technicians installed Roman’s solar panels in June of 2025, followed by the Lower Instrument Sun Shield — a smaller set of panels that will play a critical role in keeping Roman’s instruments cool and stable. Technicians practiced deploying the solar panels and Deployable Aperture Cover — a visor-like sunshade.
By fall 2025, the observatory was in two major segments. The inner portion included the telescope, instrument carrier, two instruments, and spacecraft bus while the outer portion consisted of the outer barrel assembly, deployable aperture cover, and solar panels. The outer portion passed a shake test and an intense sound blast while the inner portion underwent a 65-day thermal vacuum test.
Over the course of several hours, technicians meticulously connected the inner and outer segments of NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, as shown in this time-lapse. Next, Roman will undergo final testing prior to moving to the launch site at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida for launch preparations in summer 2026. Credit: NASA/Sophia Roberts
NASA/Sophia Roberts
“With Roman’s construction complete, we are poised at the brink of unfathomable scientific discovery. In the mission’s first five years, it’s expected to unveil more than 100,000 distant worlds, hundreds of millions of stars, and billions of galaxies. We stand to learn a tremendous amount of new information about the universe very rapidly after Roman launches.”
Julie Mcenery
Roman senior project scientist at NASA Goddard
Now, Roman will undergo testing as a full observatory. Roman will move to the launch site at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida for launch preparations in summer 2026. Roman is slated to launch by May 2027, but the team is on track for launch as early as fall 2026. Follow along on the journey to launch at nasa.gov/roman.
The mountains of the western United States are sporting thin winter coats in early 2026. Although most regions saw average or above-average precipitation in fall and early winter, warmer temperatures meant that much of it fell as rain. The result has been an unusually low snowpack for this time of year, constituting a snow drought.
This image, acquired with the MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) on NASA’s Terra satellite, provides a wide view of meager western snow cover on January 15. On that day, measurements derived from satellite observations showed that snow blanketed 142,700 square miles (369,700 square kilometers) of the west. That’s the lowest coverage for that date in the MODIS record dating back to 2001 and less than one-third of the median. Coverage had increased slightly by January 26.
In addition to snow cover area, snow water equivalent (SWE)—the amount of water stored in the snowpack—is an important indicator of winter conditions in the West. In early January, the National Integrated Drought Information System reported that snow drought, defined as SWE below the 20th percentile for a given date, was most acute in Washington, Oregon, Colorado, Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico. At least one ground-based monitoring station in every major western watershed recorded the lowest SWE in at least 20 years on January 26, according to data published by the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service.
Overall, the preceding few months were very wet and warm across the West. For the water year beginning on October 1, 2025, many regions saw average or above-average precipitation. However, record warmth across a vast expanse of the region meant that much of that precipitation fell as rain rather than snow. A December 2025 atmospheric river in the Pacific Northwest was one such warm precipitation event.
One nuance in the snow deficit picture can be found in the Southern Sierra and Northern Rockies, where more precipitation has fallen as snow than rain on the lofty peaks. SWE levels stood above average at some high-elevation locations but were low farther downslope. “This is a classic climate-change, temperature-driven, elevationally dependent snowpack deficit,” said Daniel Swain, climate scientist at the California Institute for Water Resources, in a presentation.
Precipitation falling as rain tends to run off before it can recharge reservoirs and groundwater. On the other hand, winter snowpack that melts in the spring can produce a more metered, sustained water supply. The health of the mountain snowpack has implications for ecosystems, wildfire dynamics, and water availability for agriculture and other uses during drier times of the year.
There is still a lot of winter remaining, and February and March can bring significant amounts of snow. But snowfall in the coming months may not be able to make up for existing deficits. In places such as the Pacific Northwest and the Colorado River Basin that are already dry, snow drought may turn into or exacerbate traditional drought.
NASA Earth Observatory image and chart by Michala Garrison, using MODIS data from NASA EOSDIS LANCE and GIBS/Worldview, and snow cover area data from NSIDC Snow Today. Story by Lindsey Doermann.
NASA’s SpaceX Crew-12 Begins Quarantine for Space Station Mission
From left to right, NASA astronauts Jessica Meir, Jack Hathaway, ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Sophie Adenot, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev are NASA’s SpaceX Crew-12 launching to the International Space Station in February.
SpaceX
The four crew members of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-12 mission began their routine two-week quarantine on Wednesday at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston ahead of their upcoming launch to the International Space Station.
The earliest opportunity for Crew-12 to launch to the orbital complex is 6 a.m. EST Wednesday, Feb. 11, from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. The next available launch opportunities are 5:38 a.m. on Thursday, Feb. 12, and 5:15 a.m. on Friday, Feb. 13. NASA continues working toward potential launch windows for two important crewed missions this February: Artemis II and Crew-12. The agency will make any decisions on the best launch opportunity for each mission closer to flight.
NASA astronauts Jessica Meir, Jack Hathaway, ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Sophie Adenot, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev are scheduled to travel Friday, Feb. 6, from Houston to the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, where they’ll remain in quarantine while conducting prelaunch operations.
Crew quarantine began during Apollo to reduce preflight illnesses and prevent subsequent symptoms during flight. During Crew 12’s quarantine, contact with other people is limited, and most interactions are handled remotely. Family members and select mission personnel undergo medical screening and must be cleared before interacting with the crew.
Before quarantine, the team also completed the crew equipment interface test on Jan. 12. The daylong exercise included crew members putting on their spacesuits, entering the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft, conducting suit leak checks, and confirming seat fitting. They also familiarized themselves with the spacecraft’s interior, completed communications checkouts, and listened to the Dragon’s fans and pumps to prepare for sounds they will hear during the flight to the orbiting laboratory.
Advanced Tech Research on Station as Crew-12 Announces Launch Opportunities
The four members of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-12 mission to the International Space Station pose together for a crew portrait inside a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft. From left are, Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev, NASA astronauts Jack Hathaway and Jessica Meir, and ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Sophie Adenot.
SpaceX
Robotics and artificial intelligence were back on the research schedule Wednesday for the Expedition 74 crew to inspire college students and explore boosting crew efficiency. Earth observations and life support maintenance also rounded out the day for the orbital residents aboard the International Space Station.
Several teams of college students from the Asia-Pacific region competed to see whose code could best command the Astrobee robotic free-flyers during a “treasure” hunt aboard the Kibo laboratory module. The challenge was to maneuver the Astrobee and properly identify and locate hidden items throughout the Kibo lab. NASA Flight Engineer Chris Williams monitored the Kibo robotics challenge ensuring the toaster-sized, cube-shaped robots were correctly configured and operated safely. The ultimate objective of the robotics challenge is to inspire students to study science, technology, engineering, and math subjects.
Station Commander Sergey Kud-Sverchkov of Roscosmos worked in the Zvezda service module and studied using artificial intelligence to boost crew efficiency aboard the orbital outpost. He tested AI-assisted tools to convert speech-to-text and improve data handling and communications between the crew and ground controllers. Researchers seek to use the new technology to speed up and increase the accuracy of crew documentation benefitting operations aboard spacecraft.
The commander also checked out a variety of cameras throughout the station’s Roscosmos segment and synchronized them to Greenwich Mean Time, or GMT, to accurately timestamp imagery. Kud-Sverchkov then moved on and serviced plumbing and ventilation systems in the Nauka and Zarya modules.
Roscosmos Flight Engineer Sergei Mikaev pointed a camera out a station window and programmed it to automatically photograph landmarks across eastern Europe at the beginning of his shift. Afterward, Mikaev uninstalled the Earth observation equipment and downloaded the imagery data for analysis on the ground. During the second half of his shift, he checked out computer software supporting physics research hardware then answered a questionnaire to help researchers improve communications between international crews and mission controllers from around the world.
The earliest opportunity for NASA’s SpaceX Crew-12 launch to the space station is 6 a.m. EST, Feb. 11, from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. Next opportunities are 5:38 a.m. Feb. 12 & 5:15 a.m. Feb. 13. NASA continues working toward potential launch windows for two important crewed missions this February: Artemis II and Crew-12. We will make any decisions on the best launch opportunity for each mission closer to flight.
