Energetic.
Explosive.
Unexpected.
Fast.
Really bright.
Bright.
Awesome.
Transient science is the study of things
that change in the night sky; usually things that get brighter
and then fade.
So usually astronomers stare at the sky and nothing changes,
and you're piecing things together.
But every once in a while, something
happens that changes on a human timescale;
something like seconds, to minutes, to hours, to years.
All space telescope missions can be
considered transient missions.
Roman in particular, is designed to be a transient survey
machine.
But Hubble and James Webb are critical,
synergistic missions -- where James Webb can give us that
really in-depth view of specific transients,
while Roman can survey a large patch of sky and find the rarest
objects that we can possibly see.
We're trying to answer fundamental questions of "How
did all this stuff get here?," "What formed them?,"
and "How will we see more in the universe?"
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