Nasa Sends New Roman Telescope Into Space
Nasa's new telescope left Florida and will travel one million miles from Earth.
Nasa has a new space telescope.
Its name is Nancy Grace Roman.
The telescope left Earth from Florida. A SpaceX rocket carried it.
About 30 minutes after the launch, the telescope separated from its SpaceX rocket.
Now it will travel for 100 days. It will stop about one million miles from Earth.
The telescope will look for new planets. It will also study dark energy and dark matter.
"Roman is going to change the way we look at the Universe," a Nasa boss said.
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Nasa Launches Roman Telescope on 100-Day Journey
The Nancy Grace Roman telescope will study dark energy, dark matter and planets outside our solar system.
Nasa's powerful new telescope has left Earth from a launchpad in Florida. About 30 minutes after the launch, it separated from its SpaceX rocket.
The telescope is called the Nancy Grace Roman telescope. Nasa says it can see an area of space 100 times larger than the Hubble and James Webb telescopes.
The journey will take 100 days, because the telescope is going to a point about one million miles from Earth. After that, it will start looking for exoplanets — planets outside our solar system.
"Roman is going to discover tens of thousands, maybe even 100,000 new exoplanets," said Nicky Fox, a Nasa administrator. She said one main goal at Nasa is to answer the question: are we alone in the Universe?
The telescope will also study dark matter and dark energy. Scientists think these two things make up about 95% of the Universe, but they do not know what they are. The mission will last five years, but Nasa hopes it will work for 10 years.
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Nasa's Roman Telescope Begins Mission to Map the Universe
The new telescope has a field of vision 100 times larger than Hubble and James Webb, and will hunt for exoplanets and study dark energy.
Nasa's powerful next-generation telescope has blasted off from its launchpad in Florida, beginning a mission to explore dark energy, black holes and other mysteries of the Universe.
The Nancy Grace Roman telescope will capture wide, panoramic views of space. According to Nasa, its field of vision is 100 times larger than that of both the Hubble and James Webb space telescopes. About 30 minutes after the launch, Roman separated from its SpaceX rocket. It is now on a 100-day journey to a point roughly one million miles from Earth, where it will begin charting planets outside our solar system, known as exoplanets.
"Roman is going to change the way we look at the Universe," said Nicky Fox, a Nasa administrator. She said the telescope could discover tens of thousands, and possibly 100,000, new exoplanets. One of the agency's main goals, she added, is answering the question of whether we are alone in the Universe.
Project manager Jackie Townsend described the launch as "glorious". US President Donald Trump telephoned the news conference to congratulate the scientists working on the project.
The telescope is named after the physicist Nancy Grace Roman, who was Nasa's first chief astronomer in the 1960s and its first female executive. She helped to get the Hubble Space Telescope approved by US Congress. Roman has a five-year primary lifespan, with a goal of operating for 10 years, and is expected to improve understanding of dark matter and dark energy, which together are thought to make up about 95% of the Universe.
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