SpaceX launched the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope into space from Kennedy Space Center in Florida aboard a Falcon Heavy rocket, NASA reported. The new observatory launched to study the universe. Roman will orbit the Sun rather than the Earth, matching the orbital path of the James Webb Space Telescope.
The Roman Space Telescope has a main mirror identical in size to the primary mirror on the Hubble Space Telescope. Despite sharing that mirror dimension, Roman sees 100 times more sky during each snapshot than Hubble. That field of view is possible because Roman's main mirror is more curved, its secondary mirror sits closer, and its main camera is larger.
These optical characteristics allow the Roman Space Telescope to inspect more of the sky more quickly. NASA stated that this capability will likely allow the discovery of many more supernovas, which tell scientists more about the expansion rate and composition of the universe. The agency reported that Roman will also likely discover many more planets orbiting other stars, yielding data about the possibilities for life elsewhere in the universe.
Robert Nemiroff, Jerry Bonnell, Cecilia Chirenti, and Keighley Rockcliffe served as authors and editors for the Astronomy Picture of the Day announcement. The daily publication is a service of NASA Science Activation and Michigan Technological University. Alongside the mission announcement, NASA confirmed that the main website for the service is moving from apod.nasa.gov to science.nasa.gov/apod.
