News Archive / Tagged: WFIRST

• NASA budget request maintains Moon push, cuts other programs

  Derek RichardsonMarch 12th, 2019

  In President Trump's 2020 budget request, some NASA programs face serious cuts while the agency’s lunar exploration efforts are poised to receive a boost.

• NASA awards WFIRST contract to Ball Aerospace

  Joe LatrellMay 30th, 2018

  The Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST) is starting to become a reality as NASA begins awarding contracts for the construction of key components. Ball Aerospace recently received one of these contracts for the projected $3.2-billion project.

• Microlensing ideal for finding Neptune-sized exoplanets, study shows

  Laurel KornfeldDecember 23rd, 2016

  Gravitational microlensing, one of several techniques used to search for exoplanets, is the ideal method for finding Neptune-sized planets in distant orbits around their stars, according to a study published in the Dec. 13, 2016, issue of The Astrophysical Journal.

• NASA’s WFIRST spacecraft expected to advance understanding of dark matter

  Tomasz NowakowskiMay 5th, 2016

  NASA’s Wide-Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST) could be destined for great discoveries in the field of astrophysics. With a view about 100 times bigger than that of the iconic Hubble Space Telescope, WFIRST is expected to yield crucial results about the still-elusive dark matter and dark energy.

• Coronagraph, starshade could assist imaging of Earth-like planets

  Laurel KornfeldMay 3rd, 2016

  Two new technologies in development could yield detailed images of Earth-like exoplanets within the next decade—a pinhead-sized coronagraph and baseball-diamond-sized starshade.