Already
2 Space Telescopes orbiting the earth taking observations of the Universe. The Hubble
was launched by NASA in 1990 and is still operational, while the James Webb was
launched more recently in Dec 2021.
Close
on the heels of the James Webb comes the “Nancy Grace Roman” space telescope which
would be launched by NASA on 30.08.2026.
This
telescope is named after Nancy Grace Roman NASA’s first Chief Astronomer and is
often called the mother of the Hubble Space Telescope.
The
Nancy Grace Roman telescope would orbit the earth in the 2nd Sun Lagrange
Point 1.5 million Km away from the earth. This telescope’s field of view is 100
times that of the Hubble telescope enabling it to map enormous stretches of sky
in great detail far quicker than earlier.
Hubble
provides sharp multi wavelength views, James Webb examines individual objects
in excellent infrared detail while Roman would excel at wide area surveys.
Two
of Roman’s primary aims are to unravel part of the Universe’s darkest of mysteries,
Dark Energy & Dark Matter. Of course, these two cannot be measured by any
instruments made by man including the Roman, yet the Roman can closely examine
the effects they have on the surrounding matter.
The
Roman will also measure the Universe’s expansion history and it also searches
for Exo planets. This telescope can block starlight to directly see Exo planets
and planet forming discs and complete a statistical census of planetary systems
in our Galaxy.
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