The Roman Coronagraph Instrument: Pathway to Imaging Reflected Light Planets and Habitable Worlds

The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope Coronagraph Instrument is a new space-based visible-wavelength high-contrast imager and spectrograph in development. It is expected to achieve 100-1000x better contrast ratios than current high-contrast imaging systems and image the first planets in reflected starlight (as well as their circumstellar environments). This significant jump in sensitivity is made possible because the Roman Coronagraph will combine deformable mirrors, photon-counting electron-multiplying CCDs, high-performance coronagraph masks, and wavefront sensing and control on a space telescope for the first time. Demonstrating how these technologies work together is a critical step towards imaging Earth analogues with the Habitable Worlds Observatory. This talk will provide an overview of the instrument, updates on integration and testing of the hardware that are ongoing, anticipated performance, instrument goals, and potential observation plans. With a baseline allocation of ~2200 hours for the Coronagraph Instrument in the first 1.5 years of the mission and a launch date no later than May 2027, it is imperative that we start thinking now on how to achieve the technical goals of the instrument and extract unique science from the data. While there is no general observing program, any scientist can get involved through the new Community Participation Program and this talk will highlight some ways we are seeking input from the community to shape the observing plan of the Roman Coronagraph Instrument.