NASA has launched the new Roman space telescope to study dark matter and exoplanets
Kyiv • UNN
The Nancy Grace Roman Telescope will study dark matter, dark energy, and exoplanets. NASA plans to release the first images in early 2027.
NASA launched the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope aboard a Falcon Heavy rocket. It will study dark matter, dark energy and exoplanets, and the telescope is expected to transmit its first images of the Universe in early 2027. This is reported on NASA's website, writes UNN.
The mission was launched at 7:26 a.m. Eastern Time on Sunday from Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida
It is noted that the Roman telescope combines a wide field of view with sharp infrared vision, allowing it to survey vast areas of the sky and "delve deeply into the history of space." They added that the mission will help astronomers study dark matter, dark energy and worlds beyond the Solar System—exoplanets.
Roman is exactly the kind of success story we want to see across NASA. This mission, delivered ahead of schedule and within budget, is the result of more than a decade of dedicated work by NASA employees and our industry partners
The ground control team at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, began receiving telemetry data from the Roman telescope seven minutes after launch.
The Falcon Heavy rocket performed as expected and separated from the observatory at the 31st minute of flight. After separating from the central core, the rocket boosters safely returned to the spaceport for maintenance.
It is reported that the Roman mission team also confirmed the successful deployment of the observatory's lower instrument sun shield (LISS) and solar panels. Over the next few days, Roman's high-sensitivity antenna and deployable aperture cover will be deployed, ground controllers will begin the first of two midcourse trajectory corrections, and the coronagraph will also be switched on.
Several weeks after the journey begins, Roman's primary instrument—the Wide Field Instrument—will become operational. The 300-megapixel infrared camera has 18 4K detectors that collect photons of light, which will then be converted into sharp cosmic panoramas.
During the remainder of the telescope's three-month commissioning period, scientists will conduct a series of instrument calibrations and tests.
NASA plans to release the first images from the Roman telescope in early 2027.
Every day, the space telescope will transmit 1.4 terabytes of data, which is currently the highest data transmission rate among all of the administration's astrophysics missions.
Roman is the fourth major mission that NASA has launched aboard a Falcon Heavy rocket.