NASA's new Roman Space Telescope set to launch this Sunday will help scientists study dark matter and dark energy across billions of galaxies, unraveling the deepest mysteries of the universe

NASA's new Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is set to launch on Sunday, August 30, carrying out a wide-ranging survey of the universe that could help scientists understand dark matter, dark energy and the evolution of galaxies. The observatory will also search for exoplanets and complement Hubble and James Webb.

When and where will NASA's Roman Space Telescope launch?

NASA and SpaceX are targeting the launch of the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope for 7:26 a.m. EDT on Sunday, August 30, from Launch Complex 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The telescope will launch aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket. For viewers in India, the targeted liftoff time is 4:56 p.m. IST.


NASA's launch coverage is scheduled to begin before liftoff, allowing viewers to follow the final preparations and countdown. The agency will stream the launch through its official platforms, including NASA+.

Why is it called Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope?

The telescope carries the name of Nancy Grace Roman, NASA's first chief astronomer and a scientist widely recognised for helping establish the agency's space astronomy programme.

NASA also calls Roman the “mother of the Hubble Space Telescope” because of her major role in making Hubble possible. The new observatory therefore carries the name of a scientist whose work helped shape NASA's modern space telescope programme.

Roman will see a much wider view of the universe

The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is designed differently from Hubble and James Webb.

Its primary mirror measures 2.4 metres across, the same diameter as Hubble's, but Roman's Wide Field Instrument will allow it to see a much larger portion of the sky at once. NASA says its field of view will be at least 100 times larger than Hubble's.

This means Roman can survey enormous areas of space instead of concentrating on relatively small regions.

NASA says the telescope could potentially measure light from a billion galaxies over its lifetime, creating a huge dataset for scientists studying the structure and history of the universe.

The telescope is expected to conduct its primary mission for five years, scanning vast and deep sections of the sky using its wide field of view and infrared vision.

Roman will investigate dark energy

One of the biggest questions Roman will tackle is dark energy, the mysterious phenomenon associated with the accelerating expansion of the universe.

Scientists know that the universe is expanding, but they still do not know what causes that expansion to accelerate. Roman will study the distribution and movement of galaxies and other cosmic structures to help scientists track how the universe has expanded over time.

Its observations could help researchers determine whether dark energy has remained constant or changed throughout cosmic history.

If its behaviour differs from what current models predict, scientists may have to reconsider their understanding of the universe's expansion.

It will also map invisible dark matter

Dark matter presents a different mystery.

Scientists cannot directly see dark matter because it does not emit, absorb or reflect light in the way ordinary matter does. But its gravity affects visible objects and bends the path of light travelling through space.

Roman will use these subtle effects, including gravitational lensing, to help scientists map how matter is distributed across enormous regions of the universe.

By combining observations of hundreds of millions of galaxies, researchers can study how cosmic structures formed and changed over billions of years. NASA says this work will help scientists investigate the role of dark matter in shaping the universe.

Roman will hunt thousands of exoplanets

The telescope's mission will extend beyond cosmology.

Roman will also search for planets outside our solar system using a technique called gravitational microlensing. When the gravity of a foreground star bends and magnifies the light of a more distant star, an orbiting planet can create a tiny additional change in that light.

By repeatedly observing huge numbers of stars, Roman will be able to detect these brief signals.

NASA expects Roman's microlensing survey to monitor about 100 million stars and discover roughly 2,500 planets.

The telescope will also carry a coronagraph designed to block the overwhelming light of stars and demonstrate technology for directly observing nearby exoplanets and planet-forming discs.

Roman will not replace Hubble and James Webb

The launch of Roman does not mean Hubble or James Webb will become obsolete.

Instead, NASA expects the three observatories to complement one another.

Roman will provide a wide view, surveying huge areas of the sky and identifying interesting galaxies, planets and other objects. Hubble and James Webb can then make more detailed observations of selected targets.

This combination could allow scientists to discover objects and patterns across enormous regions with Roman before using other telescopes to investigate particularly interesting targets in greater detail.

NASA describes Roman as a mission designed to survey vast, deep swaths of sky while opening opportunities to study everything from dark matter and dark energy to exoplanets and distant galaxies.

A telescope designed to look at the universe differently

The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope's biggest advantage will not simply be its ability to take sharper pictures. Its strength will come from how much of the universe it can observe at once.

By combining a wide field of view with infrared observations, Roman will allow scientists to compare enormous populations of galaxies, map invisible matter through its gravitational effects, investigate the expansion of the universe and search for planets that other techniques may struggle to detect.

If Sunday's launch goes ahead as planned, the mission will begin a new phase of large-scale astronomical surveys, giving scientists an unprecedented amount of data to investigate some of the biggest unanswered questions about the universe.