NASA's Roman Telescope to Survey Sky 100x Hubble

NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is about two days from launch, marking the next flagship astrophysics mission after the James Webb Space Telescope. Teams at the University of Arizona are set to watch from Cape Canaveral as Roman begins its journey toward science operations expected to start in January 2027. Built to survey large portions of the sky quickly, Roman will complement Webb, which focuses on small regions with deep observations. Like Hubble, Roman observes infrared, but its 7.9-foot primary mirror matches Hubble’s diameter while its Wide Field Instrument images an area 100 times larger. Its Coronagraph Instrument will help study exoplanets and disks. Roman’s research includes dark matter and dark energy, with $2 million awarded to Arizona’s Kinematic Lensing team for a measurement technique.