An Italian-led astronomical survey has been chosen as one of the five flagship General Astrophysics Surveys for the first observation cycle of NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, making it the only non-American program among the top-tier projects. The survey, titled “The First Complete Census of Stars in Key Globular Clusters,” is led by Luigi R. Bedin, a researcher at the Italian National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF) at the Astronomical Observatory of Padua. The selection places Italian astrophysics at the forefront of one of the most anticipated space missions of the decade.
The Roman Space Telescope, often described as the technological successor to the Hubble Space Telescope, features a mirror of similar size but a field of view 100 times larger. Scheduled for launch on August 30, 2026, the telescope attracted 374 proposals for its first observation cycle. After a rigorous selection process, the Roman Science Support Center approved 118 programs—12 large, 45 medium, and 61 small. Among these, the five General Astrophysics Surveys, which require extensive observation campaigns, will collectively use 1,456 hours of telescope time. Bedin’s survey has been allocated 167 hours and 12 minutes, representing a significant investment by NASA, estimated at around 17 million euros based on the mission’s total cost of approximately 4 billion euros over its nominal five-year operational life.
The primary goal of Bedin’s program is to conduct the first homogeneous census of stellar populations across the entire environment of globular clusters, targeting white dwarfs and faint brown dwarfs to reconstruct the history and evolution of the Milky Way. To achieve this, the Roman telescope will observe four of the nearest and most studied globular clusters: M4, NGC 6397, 47 Tucanae, and Omega Centauri. Using the telescope’s Wide Field Instrument (WFI), the survey will map these stellar systems from their dense cores to their outermost peripheries, providing unprecedented detail. “This achievement represents a great honor and a very important recognition, both for me and for our group, testifying to the quality of our work and the innovations we have brought to this field,” Bedin said. “We will do our utmost to honor the trust placed in us, committing ourselves to advancing scientific knowledge. The data we collect with Roman, as well as the atlases and catalogs we produce, will become a precious legacy and will remain available to the entire astronomical community for decades to come.”
The international team led by Bedin includes other young INAF researchers: Mattia Libralato (INAF Padua), Davide Massari, and Emanuele Dalessandro (INAF Bologna). The selection underscores the competitiveness of Italian and European astrophysical research on the global stage. However, the team faces a critical challenge: all data collected by the Roman telescope for these surveys will be made public immediately, with no proprietary period. This means that as soon as the observations reach Earth, the entire global scientific community can download and use them for discoveries, without any advantage granted to the teams that designed and proposed the surveys. “It is therefore crucial to be ready,” the researchers emphasize.
To analyze the vast amount of data—tens of terabytes of complex information—the team requires dedicated funding. Fortunately, starting this year, INAF has begun financing the scientific exploitation of data acquired as principal investigator at major international astronomical facilities. “We strongly hope that this funding channel will continue over time,” said Libralato. “Although these resources are not yet comparable to the levels of other countries, this small targeted effort is vital for us: it will allow us to fund or stabilize young research personnel and guarantee the minimum means to process tens of terabytes of complex data. Consider that our American co-investigators will receive several hundred thousand dollars from NASA to work on this same project. For Italy, it would be a real shame to lead such a prestigious survey without having the minimum means necessary to remain competitive on the scientific analysis front.”
The selection of Bedin’s survey among the top five programs highlights the growing role of international collaboration in space science. The Roman Space Telescope, named after the pioneering astronomer Nancy Grace Roman, is designed to address fundamental questions about dark energy, exoplanets, and infrared astrophysics. With its wide field of view, it will complement observations from the Hubble and James Webb Space Telescopes, offering a broader perspective on the universe. For the Italian team, the next steps involve preparing for the data flow and ensuring that the scientific return matches the investment. As Bedin noted, the catalogs and atlases produced will serve as a lasting resource for astronomers worldwide, potentially shaping research for decades.