Roman Coronagraph Instrument Call for White Papers
The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope (hereafter, Roman) is NASA’s next astrophysics flagship mission. When fully operational in 2027, Roman will provide the astronomical community with an unparalleled opportunity to conduct high-resolution, wide-field surveys at near-infrared wavelengths.
Roman will also demonstrate space-based, visible-band coronagraphy with active optics for the first time, using the novel Roman Coronagraph Instrument (the Coronagraph hereafter). The Coronagraph is a technology demonstration designed to prove a variety of flight hardware, software, and observational/data analysis techniques necessary to mature NASA’s ability to build a next-generation exoplanet characterization mission. There will be no exclusive use period for observations obtained by the Coronagraph.
NASA has created the Community Participation Program (CPP) to prepare for and execute Coronagraph observations. In order to engage the coronagraph / exoplanet community in the definition of this observing program, the CPP is sponsoring a call for White Papers to collect concepts for technology demonstration and scientific exploration observations with the Coronagraph, with a due date of August 7th.
All members of the science and technology community, across all career stages, positions, and types of institutions, are encouraged to submit their technology and science investigation ideas. White papers will be reviewed by members of the CPP team and will be used to inform the planning of Roman Coronagraph observations.
Coronagraph observations are not planned to be part of the Roman General Investigator Program, so this white paper call is intended to provide the main avenue for the community to influence observational priorities. Unless authors opt out, submitted white papers will be published on the CPP website.
The full solicitation for this White Paper call, as well as resources for authors, can be found at: https://www.romancoronagraph.space/white-papers-2025
On behalf of the Coronagraph CPP, with support from Roman’s Project Science Team at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, the Science Support Center (SSC) at IPAC, and the Science Operations Center (SOC) at STScI.
Astrobiology, Astronomy, Exoplanet,
