Detector systems from Teledyne aboard NASA’s premier astrophysics mission are set to aid investigations of dark energy, exoplanets, and cosmic evolution.
After the successful liftoff of NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope on August 30 from Kennedy Space Center in Florida via a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket, Teledyne Space Imaging – a leading provider of space-qualified imaging sensors, focal plane arrays, and integrated camera systems and part of Teledyne Technologies Incorporated (NYSE: TDY) – achieved a major milestone.
The Roman launch brings the total number of Teledyne scientific imaging sensors in orbit to more than 1,000, including those aboard the Hubble and James Webb missions. The detector technologies support both of Roman’s primary scientific instruments, enabling research into dark energy, exoplanets, and a wide array of astrophysical phenomena. This accomplishment further solidifies Teledyne’s role as a top supplier of advanced detector technologies for scientific, commercial, and government space missions.
In 2018, NASA awarded Teledyne a $23 million (USD) contract to deliver 24 flight-quality sensor chip assemblies for the Roman mission, later expanded to 28. Each detector exceeded performance specifications for quantum efficiency, low noise, and image persistence, while also increasing the instrument’s spectral bandwidth by 20 percent.
For the mission’s Wide Field Instrument (WFI), Teledyne provided H4RG-10 infrared detector arrays that make up Roman’s focal plane – the largest infrared focal plane ever flown in space. Each detector contains over 16 million pixels in a 4096 × 4096 format. A mosaic of 18 H4RG-10 detectors creates more than 300 million pixels, with a distinctive shape that inspired the official Roman mission logo selected by NASA.
Teledyne also supplied three CCD311-20 detectors for Roman’s Coronagraph Instrument, one of the most advanced high-contrast imaging systems ever deployed in space. The instrument uses precision coronagraph masks, deformable mirrors, wavefront sensing and control systems, and electron-multiplying CCD technology to suppress starlight and directly observe much fainter planetary systems. This technology demonstration is expected to help enable future missions that can directly image Earth-like planets around nearby stars.
Megan Tremer, President of Teledyne Space Imaging, stated: "Reaching more than 1,000 scientific, space-qualified imaging sensors in orbit is a proud achievement for everyone at Teledyne. It reflects our long-standing commitment to advancing imaging technology and supporting the world's most ambitious space missions. Roman is another important chapter in that story, and we are excited to see how it expands our understanding of the Universe."
Roman is NASA’s newest flagship astrophysics observatory, designed to survey billions of galaxies and observe distant stellar explosions to help scientists investigate dark energy – the mysterious force driving the Universe’s accelerating expansion. The mission will also identify thousands of exoplanets beyond our solar system, including planetary systems never before studied at this scale. It combines a field of view roughly 200 times larger than the Hubble Space Telescope’s infrared observations.
Beyond these core objectives, Roman will support a broad spectrum of astronomical research, from studying star formation in neighboring galaxies and supermassive black holes in the distant Universe, to examining the environments where stars and planetary systems are born. The observatory will also contribute to our understanding of objects within our own solar system.
Roman builds on more than four decades of Teledyne innovation in detector technology. Today, Teledyne’s imaging sensors support many of the world’s leading scientific and Earth observation missions, including the Hubble Space Telescope, James Webb Space Telescope, Euclid Space Telescope, ESA’s Sentinel missions, and NOAA’s and NASA’s GOES program.
ENDS
Note to Editors
About Teledyne Space Imaging
Teledyne Space Imaging of Teledyne Technologies Incorporated (NYSE: TDY) has a distinguished heritage in developing space-qualified imaging sensors, focal plane arrays, and integrated camera systems for premier space agencies and observatories such as NASA, ESA, JAXA, and KASA. Its history spans over 250 space projects, as well as a variety of commercial space applications. Teledyne Space Imaging designs, tests, and manufactures a range of CCD, CMOS, and IR detectors with optical filters and package options to meet every performance requirement.
About Teledyne
Teledyne is a leading provider of sophisticated digital imaging products and software, instrumentation, aerospace and defense electronics, and engineered systems. Teledyne's operations are primarily located in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Western and Northern Europe. For more information, visit Teledyne's website at www.teledyne.com
Abigail Singleton
Singleton PR
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