How Nancy Grace Space Telescope compares to the Hubble, James Webb
NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is set to launch on August 30, offering a wider field of view than the Hubble or James Webb telescopes. It will operate at the Sun-Earth L2 point to study dark energy and dark matter.
Why it matters
The Roman telescope represents a significant technological leap in deep-space observation, potentially answering fundamental questions about the composition and evolution of the universe.
Hear this story NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope – the space agency’s newest orbital observatory – promises unprecedented wide-angle views of the cosmos, including distant galaxies, black holes and planets that may resemble those in our own solar system.
Roman, as it’s called, will launch from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center on Aug. 30.
Like its predecessors the Hubble and James Webb space telescopes, Roman will try to solve some of astronomy's biggest questions. It will examine the nature of dark energy, the distribution of dark matter and how common planets are throughout the Milky Way.
What makes Roman unique is its wide-angle vision and powerful infrared instruments that give it an extraordinary field of view. It will capture images with Hubble-like sharpness, but its primary camera can observe an area of space at least 100 times larger than Hubble can see in a single image.
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