NASA launches Roman telescope on cosmic mapping mission

NASA launched its new flagship space telescope on Sunday, embarking on a multi-year mission to create an unprecedented map of the cosmos. The Roman Space Telescope will also shed light on some of the biggest unsolved mysteries in physics.

What will the Roman telescope do?

Roman will take a panoramic view of deep space, surveying vast swaths of the sky with a field of view more than 100 times larger than Hubble's. It aims to discover thousands of exoplanets and tens of thousands of supernovae while probing dark matter and dark energy. Its infrared vision will let scientists look billions of years into the universe's past.

How and when did the Roman telescope launch?

Standing over 12 meters (39 feet) tall, the observatory launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 7:26 am (1126 GMT) aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket. President Donald Trump said Friday during a ceremony at NASA headquarters in Houston, Texas, that Roman would help unlock the secrets of the universe. The telescope was developed over more than a decade at a cost topping $4 billion and is named after astronomer Nancy Grace Roman, known as the Mother of Hubble.

Where is the Roman Space Telescope headed?

Roman will travel to a vantage point 1.5 million kilometers (930,000 miles) from Earth, a journey expected to take about 100 days. From there it will work alongside observatories such as James Webb, which offers greater power and precision. NASA administrator Jared Isaacman said in April that Roman would give Earth a new atlas of the universe.

Roman's technical manager, Dave Content, told AFP it would produce the biggest catalog of astronomical objects ever assembled and help scientists understand how common solar systems like our own are.

What mysteries will Roman investigate?

Dark matter and dark energy are believed to make up about 95 percent of the universe, yet their origins remain unknown. Dark matter is thought to act as a kind of gravitational glue, while dark energy is believed to drive the universe's expansion. Roman's observations will complement the Rubin Observatory in Chile and the European Space Agency's Euclid probe.

Julie McEnery, Roman's senior project scientist, said recent research suggests the standard model of the universe's early expansion may be wrong. She told a press conference Saturday that Roman will help determine whether existing models hold up or need revision, providing the precision to distinguish between competing theories.

Who can access Roman's data?

Scientists and the public will have access to all of Roman's data, though the volume will be significant. The telescope will generate about 1.3 terabytes of data a day, which Content said makes it impossible to download to a personal laptop. McEnery said she expects the most exciting science from Roman to come from unexpected findings that set the stage for future missions.