Tech · Engadget
NASA targets a September launch for its next big space telescope
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NASA's next eye into the cosmos is due to leave their planet later this year.
Key facts
- After leaving their atmosphere, Roman will set course for a vantage point nearly 1 million miles from Earth
- The first is a 300.8-megapixel camera that captures light from visible to near-infrared
- Despite decades of study, astronomers know surprisingly little about dark energy, which makes up about 68 percent of the universe’s contents
- The agency says it's targeting an early September launch for the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope
Summary
The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, named after NASA's first chief astronomer and "mother" of Hubble, was introduced in 2016. (Back then, it was known as the Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope, or WFIRST.) The telescope's mirror is roughly the same size as Hubble's, but it can capture sections of the sky at least 100 times larger than its predecessor. "Roman will work in tandem with NASA observatories such as the James Webb Space Telescope and Chandra X-ray Observatory, which are designed to zoom in on rare transient objects once they've been identified, but seldom if ever discover them," Julie McEnery, Roman's senior project scientist, said in 2023. After leaving their atmosphere, Roman will set course for a vantage point nearly 1 million miles from Earth. Roman’s mission: "to settle essential questions in the areas of dark energy, exoplanets and astrophysics.