NASA launched on Sunday, August 30th, the "Nancy Grace Roman" telescope, the largest panoramic observatory ever built, aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket. The launch took place at 07:26 Eastern Time from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The bus-sized telescope has the mission to explore the universe and seek answers about dark energy, exoplanets and infrared astrophysics.
The Roman has a field of view 100 times superior to the Hubble telescope and may challenge the current understanding of the universe. A single month of observations will allow tracking the Milky Way and detecting up to half of its stars, which will generate a catalog larger than any other existing one. NASA predicts that these capabilities may change current models of physics.
The telescope is valued at 4.3 billion dollars, according to the Associated Press. The Roman is heading to an observation point located 1.6 million kilometers away, where the Webb space telescope is already located, and will take more than three months to reach its destination.
The observatory was named in honor of the late Nancy Grace Roman, NASA's first chief astronomer.
