00:00A coronagraph is a way to see distant planets hidden by the glare of the star they orbit.
00:08The coronagraph reduces the light coming directly from the star
00:12to separate it from the light reflected by the planet.
00:15The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope's coronagraph
00:18doesn't block the star's light with an opaque disk as a simple coronagraph might.
00:23Instead, it uses a combination of disks with complex patterns
00:28and light blocking stops to create destructive interference with the star's light,
00:33effectively making it disappear while allowing the light from planets to pass through.
00:38A complicating factor is that the light picks up small distortions
00:42as it reflects off the telescope's series of mirrors,
00:45and these distortions can reduce the effectiveness of the destructive interference.
00:49Collecting more light increases the image signal,
00:52but the planets are still hidden under blobs of leftover, distorted starlight.
00:57To remove these blobs, the coronagraph has special deformable mirrors
01:01that can change shape by using hundreds of tiny pistons.
01:04This corrects distortions in the light beam.
01:07As the mirrors deform, the blobs of light slowly begin to disappear, revealing brighter planets.
01:13Further adjustment brings fainter planets into view.
01:17Advanced software processes this data,
01:20further improving the contrast and clarity of the image.
01:23This processing makes objects more than a billion times fainter than the star visible.
01:28As a result, the Roman Space Telescope will provide the first look at individual planets
01:34in star systems that might be similar to our own.
01:38The Roman Space Telescope
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