Roman’s primary science instrument, the Wide Field Instrument, contains 18 detectors. Engineers designated a small section of each detector to rapidly monitor a different guide star — stars whose positions are already known with high precision.

Roman’s attitude control system first points the spacecraft toward the correct area of the sky. The fine-guidance system then continuously tracks those reference stars and supplies information that helps the observatory correct tiny movements during an exposure. Without those additional adjustments, Roman would not remain steady enough to produce its sharpest possible images.

“Every Roman observation relies on its ability to stay precisely pointed at the correct region of space long enough to collect an image, which can take from minutes to hours for a deep exposure,” said Begoña Vila, Roman’s guiding instrument systems lead at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “The fine-guidance system reports the positions of the guide stars about four times each second to the attitude control system, which can move the observatory a tiny amount to counter any drift as needed. Our tests confirmed that we are able to keep the observatory very stable for science operations: better than 1/100,000 of a degree for half an hour at a time for Wide Field Instrument observations or for eight hours at a time for Coronagraph Instrument observations, which take much longer. This was a very exciting moment for the team.”

The level of stability Roman has already demonstrated is roughly comparable to keeping a laser focused on a U.S. dime from about 150 miles (about 240 kilometers) away. Engineers expect to improve that performance even further as they continue tuning the guidance system. If they reach their goal, the same comparison would stretch to about 230 miles (370 kilometers).

A New Way to Guide a Space Telescope

Roman will also test a form of guidance that has never been used this way before.

“Roman doesn’t have a separate guider instrument, like other space telescopes do,” Vila said. “Instead of tracking only a star’s point-like appearance, it will guide on detailed wavelength patterns called spectra. Because Roman is already equipped to measure spectra for science, it can use that same information to precisely position the telescope. We are looking forward to validating this spectral guiding mode in the coming weeks.”

Spectra contain information about how an object’s light is distributed across different wavelengths. Roman is already designed to collect this information for scientific observations, allowing engineers to use the same capability to help determine and maintain the telescope’s precise position.

Roman’s Coronagraph Sees Cosmic Light

On Sept. 22 and 27, the team went a step further by testing the fine-guidance system together with Roman’s Coronagraph Instrument. The coronagraph is designed to demonstrate advanced technologies that suppress the brilliant light from stars so scientists can study much fainter planets and dusty disks orbiting nearby stars.

“Roman’s coronagraph also has its own internal stability process, making it much more stable even than the Wide Field Instrument,” Vila said.

That additional stability is essential for coronagraph observations. Even extremely small vibrations or pointing errors could allow unwanted starlight to leak into an image and overwhelm the much dimmer planets scientists hope to detect.

The coronagraph woke up on Sept. 1 and stretched its digital, electronic, and mechanical “limbs” mid-month. After confirming that Roman’s fine-guidance system could keep the instrument stable, the team adjusted its focus and allowed the coronagraph to take its first preliminary look at space. Those early observations will help scientists continue refining the instrument before more demanding tests begin.

“This observation confirms that the instrument can produce a focused image,” said Vanessa Bailey, a Roman Coronagraph Instrument scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. “It’s a very limited test that kicks off a methodical process of increasingly complex tasks that help us prepare for the instrument’s future observations.”

First Stars Appear in the Large Magellanic Cloud

During the first test, Roman’s Coronagraph Instrument observed a faint star in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a neighboring galaxy. The image contained extra “noise” because the instrument’s detectors were intentionally being kept warmer than their eventual operating temperature. Keeping them warmer at this stage helps prevent contamination from sticking to the detectors.

“We were kicking the tires, making sure light goes through the system,” Bailey said. “The second step, on Sunday, was an observation that confirmed our pointing. The team cooled the detectors down for better sensitivity, and we observed a new location in the Large Magellanic Cloud where we expected to see many stars in a single image. And we did! We’re breathing a sigh of relief!”

That second observation provided another important confirmation that Roman was pointing where scientists expected and that the coronagraph could detect multiple stars once its detectors were cooled for greater sensitivity. The successful tests mark another step in the instrument’s commissioning process as NASA prepares Roman for more sophisticated observations in the future.

A University of Sydney research team reexamined Australian members of the stick insect genus Anchiale and discovered two new species. One produces unusual eggs with a distinctive lidlike structure. The researchers also restored a third species that had gone unrecognized for decades.

Their work shows that insects previously classified as just two species actually represent five separate species. Together, they occur from northern NSW along coastal Queensland and into tropical northern Australia.

Hidden Diversity Among Familiar Insects

Scientists reached these conclusions despite a large amount of existing information about Australian stick insects. More than 1000 citizen science observations have been submitted through iNaturalist and the Atlas of Living Australia, and the insects have also been studied scientifically for decades.

Even so, the researchers say much of Australia’s insect diversity remains undocumented.

Lead author Dr. Braxton Jones of the Aola Richards Sydney Insect Hub at the University of Sydney said the discoveries demonstrate how much scientists still have to learn about insect biodiversity.

“Taxonomy is often a bit like detective work. Even among some of Australia’s most photographed and frequently reported insects, we’re still finding species that have escaped scientific recognition,” said Dr. Jones, a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Molecular Ecology, Evolution and Phylogenomics Laboratory.

Fun Facts About Stick Insects

• Many stick insects can reproduce without mating with a male. The process is known as parthenogenesis, in which a female produces eggs that develop into female-only offspring that are clones of herself.
• Some stick insects defend themselves by spraying chemicals at predators. The spray can irritate the eyes and mouth of an attacker.
• Australia’s longest stick insect measures around 62cm (the world record is 64cm). Australia has 130 known species, while 3609 species are known worldwide.
• Stick insects belong to a group called Phasmatodea, a name derived from an ancient Greek word meaning “phantom” or “ghost.” Their remarkable camouflage allows them to blend so effectively into vegetation that they can appear to vanish among leaves and branches.
• Some species can slowly change color to better match their surroundings. Their appearance can range from green to brown, and some can even resemble lichen as they blend into leaves, bark, and branches.
• Baby Extatosoma tiaratum stick insects use an especially unusual survival strategy. After hatching, the tiny nymphs have been observed emerging from ant nests while looking and behaving like ants. Their eggs can be carried into ant nests, where they remain dormant for months and receive protection from wasps. After hatching, the young insects use their ant-like color, shape, and behavior to move unnoticed toward the top of a eucalyptus tree.
• Some stick insects respond to threats by suddenly displaying brightly colored wings, which can startle predators. Certain species can also create a rustling noise with their wings, adding another defensive element to their wing morphology.
• If a predator catches a stick insect by the leg, some species can deliberately detach the limb and escape. This process is known as autotomy. Young stick insects can regenerate the missing leg during later molts, gradually restoring what was lost.

A Stick Insect Misidentified for Decades

One of the study’s biggest surprises involved a large stick insect that had long been familiar to both scientists and insect enthusiasts.

Researchers combined DNA analysis with museum specimens, field surveys, citizen science observations, and studies of insects raised in captivity. The evidence showed that the insect had been incorrectly identified for decades.

It is now recognized as a separate species called Anchiale robusta.

The findings are published in Austral Entomology.

The researchers also formally described Anchiale mabiensis, a new species found in Queensland’s critically endangered Mabi rainforest on the Atherton Tablelands.

Its eggs contain an unusual structural lid that has not previously been documented in any stick insect or its closest relatives.

Discovery Could Help Forestry and Agriculture

The revised classification may also have practical value.

One stick insect known for occasionally reaching plague-like population levels and stripping leaves from trees was found to represent more than one species. Distinguishing between those species could help researchers and land managers better understand and manage future impacts on forestry and agriculture.

The study also points to another possible new species from Cape York. Researchers believe it may be undescribed, but they need additional specimens before they can confirm its identity.

Dr. Jones said: “These findings demonstrate the importance of protecting threatened ecosystems and documenting Australia’s extraordinary biodiversity before we lose species without us having even discovered them.”

Funding for the research came from the Australian Biological Resources Study, through the National Taxonomy Research Grant of the Commonwealth Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water, as well as a CSIRO postgraduate scholarship.

The fabric, called Plant Armor, is designed to be placed directly over strawberry plants. Its three dimensional structure creates a barrier that keeps insects from reaching the plants, while the layered material still allows sunlight, rain, and air to pass through.

In tunnel field tests, strawberries protected by Plant Armor produced yields as much as 3.56 times higher than uncovered plants. The fabric did not reduce light availability or negatively affect relative humidity.

A Fabric That Protects Without Blocking Sunlight

“To produce fruit, plants need sunlight,” said Gabriel Olawuyi, a graduate research assistant at North Carolina State University and lead author of a paper on Plant Armor. “We expected that Plant Armor’s seemingly opaque fabric would lead to an increase in vegetative biomass at the expense of fruiting — because reduced sunlight would trigger a ‘shade-avoidance’ response, making the plant divert energy toward stem and leaf growth rather than fruit production. However, we found the fabric did not impede access to light at all, and fruit production increased significantly.”

Researchers also found that Plant Armor created a steady warming effect throughout the three growing seasons. According to Olawuyi, that extra warmth helped covered plants reach the fruiting stage earlier than plants grown without the textile.

“Plants require a certain amount of accumulated heat, calculated as ‘growing degree-days,’ to progress through developmental stages including fruiting. Our plant cover has proven to enhance these,” Olawuyi said. “The plants were in a condition whereby the warmth they need to go through each phenological stage to their production was given to them optimally, and they produced far more than the uncovered plants.”

Because Plant Armor physically prevents insects from feeding on the plants, Olawuyi said the technology could also reduce the amount of conventional pesticides needed in agricultural fields.

From Military Textiles to Strawberry Fields

The idea behind Plant Armor did not begin with farming. The technology emerged from research focused on making military uniforms more resistant to mosquito bites and improving comfort for soldiers wearing body armor.

That unexpected path from military clothing research to agriculture demonstrates the value of collaboration across scientific fields, said co-author R. Michael Roe, William Neal Reynolds Distinguished Professor at NC State.

“The path to Plant Armor started with trying to make a cloth to go on a soldier’s chest to make body armor more comfortable,” said Roe. “Then, through trial and error, we arrive at a product which could triple the output of strawberry farms here in North Carolina.

“We couldn’t have predicted that when we started. Without all these people here doing research and following the science, we wouldn’t have arrived at this product.”

Study Details and Support

The paper, “Knitted 3-D, Porous Textile Cover to Enhance Strawberry Fruit Production and Prevent Insect Feeding,” is published in the journal Agriculture. Co-authors include James Clothier, Matthew Bertone, Grayson Cave, Reuben Garshong, Andre West, Loganathan Ponnusamy and Clyde Sorenson of NC State University.

This project was supported by a grant from the North Carolina Agricultural Foundation (grant number AG00463770). The work was also supported by the Research Capacity Fund (HATCH), project award no. 02853, from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture. The Plant Armor Gen 2 fabric studied in this paper was patented by North Carolina State University (US Patent No. 11,582,968 B2; 21 February 2023) and is licensed for commercial development by the University. This work was a collaborative project between the NC State College of Natural Resources, Wilson College of Textiles and College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.

The concept uses superfluid helium, a form of helium with unusual quantum properties, to create a qubit that may be less sensitive to some of the disturbances that affect today’s leading quantum computers.

Why Quantum Computers Struggle With Errors

Quantum computers rely on qubits to store and process information in ways that conventional computers cannot. Many current systems use superconducting circuits, but these are highly sensitive to electromagnetic noise and stray electrical charges – similar to the static electricity that can make hair cling to a balloon.

Even very small disturbances can disrupt the fragile quantum information stored in a qubit. As more qubits are added, controlling those errors becomes increasingly difficult, making scalability one of the central challenges in quantum computing.

In a study published in npj Quantum Information, researchers from Surrey’s Quantum Sciences Group describe a different approach built around superfluid helium-3 – an unusual form of liquid helium that can flow without friction.

Their proposed device, called the Superfluid Helium Oscillator Quantum (SHOQ) device, would use charge-neutral superfluid helium. Because the helium carries no electric charge, the design could be naturally protected from certain types of electromagnetic noise.

A Qubit With Much Lower Predicted Error Rates

According to the researchers, this is the first reported design for a qubit based on a superfluid. Their calculations suggest the SHOQ device could have error rates about 100 times lower than conventional superconducting qubits.

Dr. Priya Sharma, Daphne Jackson Fellow in Hybrid Quantum Systems at the University of Surrey’s School of Mathematics and Physics, and lead author of the study, said:

“We are not the first to think about the individual components behind this idea, but what we have done for the first time is bring them together in a microfluidic device and work out the specific details that could enable the device to function as a qubit.

“The maths tells us that it should work. We have taken what we already know about superfluid helium and quantum technologies and turned that into an educated design, with the parameters and specifications needed to build one. The next step is to make a prototype and put those predictions to the test.”

Rather than replacing existing quantum computing hardware, the researchers say the SHOQ device could potentially be integrated with superconducting quantum technology.

That could allow different types of qubits to perform different jobs within the same system, depending on their strengths.

A Possible Role as Quantum Memory

One longer-term possibility is to use the SHOQ device as a form of quantum memory. In that setup, a superfluid based qubit could store quantum information while other hardware carries out calculations.

Dr. Eran Ginossar, Associate Professor at the University of Surrey’s Department of Physics and Advanced Technology Institute, and co-author of the study, said:

“We don’t necessarily need one type of qubit to do everything. Combining different quantum technologies could allow us to take advantage of the strengths of each.

“Superfluid helium gives us a fundamentally different type of quantum hardware to explore. If the predicted performance can be demonstrated experimentally, it could eventually work alongside existing superconducting technologies as part of a larger quantum system.”

The Next Step Is Building a Prototype

The team now plans to build a prototype to find out whether the predicted performance can be reproduced in a real device. That effort is being supported by an IAA Commercialisation Fellowship awarded to Dr. Priya Sharma.

The SHOQ device would need to operate at extremely low temperatures, but researchers have already reached the necessary conditions in previous experiments involving superfluid helium-3.

The project was led by the University of Surrey in collaboration with Professor Jens Koch at Northwestern University in the United States. Koch was one of the researchers involved in developing the transmon – a superconducting qubit design that is now widely used in quantum computing.