NANCY: Next-generation All-sky Near-infrared Community surveY

TL;DR

NANCY is a proposed all-sky near-infrared survey using the Roman Space Telescope, providing high-resolution, multi-epoch imaging to enhance and complement existing and future astronomical surveys, enabling new science and precise proper motion measurements.

Contribution

This paper introduces NANCY, a novel, comprehensive all-sky infrared survey with Roman, offering high spatial resolution and multi-epoch data to significantly expand astronomical research capabilities.

Findings

NANCY will produce a high-resolution infrared map of the entire sky.

It enables proper motion measurements for stars across the Milky Way.

The dataset will serve as a valuable legacy for diverse astronomical studies.

Abstract

The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is capable of delivering an unprecedented all-sky, high-spatial resolution, multi-epoch infrared map to the astronomical community. This opportunity arises in the midst of numerous ground- and space-based surveys that will provide extensive spectroscopy and imaging together covering the entire sky (such as Rubin/LSST, Euclid, UNIONS, SPHEREx, DESI, SDSS-V, GALAH, 4MOST, WEAVE, MOONS, PFS, UVEX, NEO Surveyor, etc.). Roman can uniquely provide uniform high-spatial-resolution (~0.1 arcsec) imaging over the entire sky, vastly expanding the science reach and precision of all of these near-term and future surveys. This imaging will not only enhance other surveys, but also facilitate completely new science. By imaging the full sky over two epochs, Roman can measure the proper motions for stars across the entire Milky Way, probing 100 times fainter than Gaia out to the very edge of the Galaxy. Here, we propose NANCY: a completely public, all-sky survey that will create a high-value legacy dataset benefiting innumerable ongoing and forthcoming studies of the universe. NANCY is a pure expression of Roman's potential: it images the entire sky, at high spatial resolution, in a broad infrared bandpass that collects as many photons as possible. The majority of all ongoing astronomical surveys would benefit from incorporating observations of NANCY into their analyses, whether these surveys focus on nearby stars, the Milky Way, near-field cosmology, or the broader universe.