Roman Coronagraph Instrument (Roman CGI)

Designed to be 100 to 1,000 times more powerful than any previous coronagraph, the Roman Coronagraph Instrument (CGI) will capture light from large, gaseous exoplanets and from the gas and dust surrounding stars. The instrument will block out the glare from these stars so that scientists can detect the planets in their orbit. Following the recommendations of the Astro2010 and Astro2020 decadal surveys, the CGI advances and demonstrates key technologies in space to enable the next generation of Earth-observing exoplanet space-based observatories. Such technologies include precision optical wavefront control with deformable mirrors, sensitive photon-counting imaging detectors, selectable coronagraph observing modes, low-resolution spectroscopy, advanced algorithms for wavefront sensing and control, high-fidelity integrated spacecraft and coronagraph modeling, and post-processing methods to extract images and spectra. The CGI is designed to demonstrate space coronagraphy at sensitivity levels of Jovian-mass planets and faint debris disks in reflected starlight.

As NASA begins preparation for a potential future Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO), it will leverage the starlight-blocking capability (i.e., a coronagraph) of current technology demonstrations, such as the Coronagraph Instrument for the Roman Space Telescope. The Coronagraph will demonstrate for the first time in space the technologies for future missions needed to image and characterize rocky planets in the habitable zones of nearby stars. By demonstrating these tools in an integrated end-to-end system and enabling scientific observing operations, NASA will validate performance models and provide the pathway for potential future flagship missions.

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