NASA to launch new space telescope with “mind-boggling” 288MP camera

A space telescope under construction in a NASA lab.

(Image credit: “Roman Space Telescope” by NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope)

NASA is set to launch its latest mind-blowing space telescope, which the agency says will “expand our understanding of the universe".

The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, officially slated for launch in May 2027, but on track to enter space from as early as fall 2026, will be NASA’s flagship telescope. NASA says it will reveal ”billions of stars, hundreds of black holes and hundreds of forming planetary systems".

In part, this will be achieved thanks to the Wide Field Instrument, a 288MP camera with the power to create images of our cosmos from the solar system almost the entire way to the edge of the observable universe.

The Wide Field Instrument will enable each of Roman's images to capture a section of the sky bigger than the apparent size of a full moon – that’s to say, how big the moon appears to the human eye.

NASA says that the Roman and recently-launched James Webb telescopes will work together in different but complementary ways to “trace the evolution of the universe”.

Ring Nebula taken by James Webb Telescope — An awe-inspiring ring Nebula captured by James Webb Telescope (Image credit: NASA/ESA/CSA/Institute for Earth and Space Exploration/JWST Ring Nebula Imaging Project)

Roman will scan larger portions of the universe, creating images many times bigger than what James Webb does, enabling rapid surveying.

While James Webb will hone in on precise locations within these surveys using its higher-resolution system to capture infrared images of specific cosmic bodies light-years away.

The Roman telescope mission will last five years with a key focus on discovering microslensing signals – when gravitational forces of other planetary bodies warp the light emitted from a background star.

In theory, this should allow the telescope to identify planets within the habitable zone of a star's orbit radius.

Regardless of what it identifies, the images that the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will capture are bound to be unbelievable.

Infographic comparing the cameras of the Roman Space Telescope with the Hubble and James Webb Space Telescopes (Image credit: NASA)

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