Survey science and exoplanet opportunities with the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope

Surveys in space and time are key to answering outstanding questions in astrophysics. The power to study very large numbers of stars, galaxies, and transient events over large portions of the sky and different time scales has repeatedly led to new breakthroughs. The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope (Roman), NASA's next Astrophysics Flagship mission, takes wide field and time domain survey observations to the next level. Roman carries the Wide Field Instrument (WFI), which provides optical to near-IR imaging and spectroscopy with an unprecedented combination of field-of-view, spatial resolution, and sensitivity. When combined with a highly stable observatory and efficient operations, the WFI allows surveys never before possible. These observations will lead to new discoveries in cosmology, exoplanets, and a very wide array of other astrophysics topics ranging from high redshift galaxies to small bodies in the solar system. This presentation will provide an overview of Roman survey science, connect this science to the design of the observatory and WFI, and describe specific examples of exoplanet opportunities afforded by Roman’s capabilities.