NASA launches Roman telescope with a view 100 times wider than Hubble

A new NASA telescope has a view of the sky that is more than 100 times wider than the Hubble and James Webb telescopes. The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope launched from Florida on Sunday morning on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket.

The $4.3 billion telescope will travel to a point about one million miles from Earth, and it should arrive in about 100 days. At that distance, heat and light from Earth and the Moon cannot disturb its cameras. Roman is made to take very wide pictures of the sky quickly. NASA says that one month of Roman's work on the Milky Way, our galaxy, would take Hubble about a century to finish.

Roman will study dark matter and dark energy, two invisible forces. Scientists think these forces make up about 95 percent of the universe. Dark matter holds galaxies together like glue, and dark energy pushes the universe to expand faster. By mapping billions of galaxies, Roman will help scientists measure that expansion more clearly.

Roman is also expected to find tens of thousands of new exoplanets, which are planets outside our solar system. Some NASA scientists think the number could reach 100,000. It carries a camera and an instrument that blocks starlight, so it may take pictures of planets around other stars.

Roman is named after Nancy Grace Roman, NASA's first chief astronomer. She helped make Hubble possible and became known as the "Mother of Hubble." The new mission is planned to last five years, with a goal of ten.