Roman Space Telescope promises 300-megapixel views of the cosmos
Summary
NASA is launching the Roman Space Telescope on Sunday using a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket. This telescope will take ultra-clear, wide-angle pictures of space much faster than the Hubble Space Telescope and will help study dark matter, dark energy, and distant planets.Key Facts
- The Roman Space Telescope costs $4.3 billion and uses a mirror donated from a canceled spy satellite.
- It has a 300-megapixel wide-field camera, capturing images covering areas as large as 45 city blocks in high detail.
- The telescope can collect data 1,000 times faster than Hubble, sending 2,500 terabytes of data during its five-year mission.
- It will launch from Kennedy Space Center at 7:26 a.m. EDT on Sunday atop a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket.
- Roman will orbit near Lagrange Point No. 2 (L2), about a million miles from Earth, where it can stay stable with little fuel use.
- It will study dark matter, which helps hold galaxies together, and dark energy, which causes the universe to expand faster.
- The telescope is named after Nancy Grace Roman, NASA’s first chief astronomer and a leader in space telescope development.
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