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Recently, NASA unveiled fresh imagery of the finished Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope at the agency’s Goddard Space Flight Center. The orbiting observatory is prepared for its launch into the cosmos later in the year. (Image credit: NASA/Jolearra Tshiteya)ShareShare by:
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The first visuals of NASA’s newly constructed Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope were recently made public, potentially aiding researchers in the quest for exoplanets, charting the expanse of the Milky Way, and deciphering some of the universe’s most profound enigmas, such as the factual essence of dark matter.
Specialists have also pinpointed the most probable date of departure for the advanced spacecraft, affirming its likely ascent ahead of schedule and its potential commencement of data collection prior to 2027.
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The latest photos, made available Dec. 4, feature Roman standing upright inside a sterile area at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. The telescope’s dimensions reach nearly 42 feet (12.7 meters) and it presents a substantial weight of 9,184 pounds (4,166 kilograms). Its establishment commenced in February 2016, with researchers noting that the endeavor has thus far remained within its starting budget of $4.3 billion.
Following its launch, Roman will be stationed approximately 1 million miles (1.6 million kilometers) away from Earth at a Lagrange point — a stable location concerning our world where gravitational forces counterbalance. Its particular Lagrange position will be Sun-Earth L2, already inhabited by JWST, as well as the European Space Agency’s Gaia and Euclid space telescopes.
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(Image credit: NASA/Chris Gunn)
The 7.9-foot (2.4 meters) mirror of Roman will channel celestial light to a powerful 288-megapixel camera.
(Image credit: NASA/Chris Gunn)
Over the span of several years, experts at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center have diligently assembled Roman, part by part.
(Image credit: NASA/Sydney Rohde)
Six expansive solar arrays will power Roman by collecting solar energy.
“The completion of the Roman observatory signifies a vital juncture for the agency,” conveyed NASA Associate Administrator Amit Kshatriya in a declaration. “Game-changing science hinges on well-managed engineering, which this team has achieved — section by section, trial by trial — culminating in an observatory that is set to vastly broaden our understanding of the cosmos.”
“With the construction of Roman now finished, we stand on the verge of potentially groundbreaking scientific insights,” articulated Julie McEnery, a NASA Goddard astrophysicist and Roman’s senior project scientist, in the same statement. “The mission is projected to discover in excess of 100,000 far-off worlds, hundreds of millions of stars, and billions of galaxies during its initial five years.”
What will Roman do?
Roman is fitted with two main devices that will establish the objectives throughout the starting five years of operation. (Although Roman is likely to continue operating beyond five years, the research team has only outlined the plans for this period.)
Foremost is the Wide Field Instrument (WFI), a 288-megapixel camera connected to a 7.9-foot (2.4 meters) mirror, possessing the ability to seize high-resolution images of the distant solar system, the peripheries of the observable cosmos, and any feature in between, utilizing infrared light undetectable by the human eye.
A significant aim for Roman will be composing the most thorough map of the Milky Way’s core in the Galactic Plane Survey, accounting for a minimum of 25% of the overall observation period. Further objectives include scouring the wider universe for entities such as distant galaxy aggregations and vast “cosmic voids” that could potentially unveil the nature of dark matter and dark energy, as per a recent NASA statement.
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Roman is expected to capture some of the richest images of our own Milky Way to date and to locate thousands of additional exoplanets inside our galaxy.
Nonetheless, the real genius behind the telescope is possibly the Coronograph Instrument, engineered to impede the light emanating from remote stars, enabling the WFI to capture images of the exoplanets orbiting them, typically obscured by the intensity of stellar light.
As of September 2025, scientists have accounted for over 6,000 exoplanets in a period close to 30 years. Roman, however, is likely to discover more than 15 times this amount in a mere half-decade, greatly benefiting scientists probing the potential for extraterrestrial life.
“The query ‘Are we alone?’ represents a monumental question, as does the task of constructing the instruments capable of aiding us in its response,” expressed Feng Zhao, a NASA Jet Propulsion Lab researcher from California, and the manager of the Roman Coronagraph Instrument, in the statement. He believes that this instrument may “move us forward towards that answer.”
In summation, Roman is anticipated to amass in excess of 20,000 terabytes of information during its initial five-year mission, comparable to the data capacity of approximately 3,000 iPhones. “The sheer magnitude of data Roman is expected to deliver is staggering,” noted Dominic Benford, a NASA researcher and Roman’s program scientist, in the statement.
When will Roman launch?
The launch for Roman had been initially projected for May 2027, with speculations suggesting possible postponements, similarly to previous NASA endeavors. To illustrate, the Planetary Society indicates JWST was originally expected for deployment in 2014.
However, early the previous year, indications arose implying Roman would not just meet expectations but might, in fact, take off sooner.
Roman will launch onboard one of SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rockets later this year. This photo shows one of these rockets, equipped with NASA’s Europa Clipper probe, lifting off from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center on Oct. 14, 2024.
During the 247th convention of the American Astronomical Society on January 5, in Phoenix, Arizona, project experts verified the validity of these speculations, disclosing the earliest likely launch period for Roman as September 28, as conveyed by Space News.
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Roman is slated to launch aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, Florida, necessitating its relocation over 900 miles (1,450 km) from Goddard before liftoff. This action is scheduled for June, and its execution will serve as a key indicator of the plausibility of a September departure.
Once Roman establishes its orbit, NASA projects a duration of about 90 days for mission specialists to finalize the necessary procedures prior to initiating data acquisition. Thus, given a September 28 launch, data collection should realistically commence around December 27.
NASA’s Roman Space Telescope: Systems, Assemble! – YouTube
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Harry BakerSocial Links NavigationSenior Staff Writer
Harry is a U.K.-based senior staff writer at Live Science. He studied marine biology at the University of Exeter before training to become a journalist. He covers a wide range of topics including space exploration, planetary science, space weather, climate change, animal behavior and paleontology. His recent work on the solar maximum won “best space submission” at the 2024 Aerospace Media Awards and was shortlisted in the “top scoop” category at the NCTJ Awards for Excellence in 2023. He also writes Live Science’s weekly Earth from space series.
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