Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope launched to study dark matter and dark energy
NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope has successfully launched. It will now undertake a three-month journey to its orbit at the second Sun-Earth Lagrange point (L2).
NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope has been successfully launched.
The telescope will now embark on a three-month, one-million-mile journey to its orbit at the second Sun-Earth Lagrange point (L2), located beyond the Moon. From this vantage point, Roman is set to conduct an unprecedented survey of the universe.
Roman's field of view is 100 times larger than Hubble's, and NASA states it can survey the sky 1,000 times faster using its 300-megapixel infrared camera. The telescope also features a Coronagraph system capable of blocking starlight glare, enabling direct imaging of exoplanets, including smaller, older, and colder worlds.
The launch follows a period of funding challenges and a name change for the mission. The Roman telescope is designed to investigate dark matter and dark energy, which are believed to constitute the majority of the universe's mass and energy.