NASA's Roman telescope 100× Hubble view
- NASA said on April 21 the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is ready for launch, with the observatory now targeting liftoff as soon as September 2026. - Roman’s Wide Field Instrument will image at least 100 times more sky than Hubble per shot and survey up to 1,000 times faster. - The mission is built to measure a billion galaxies and find more than 1,000 exoplanets. (nasa.gov)
Space telescopes work like cameras above Earth’s blur, and Roman’s main trick is a much wider shot than Hubble can take. (nasa.gov) NASA said on April 21 that the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is ready for launch and is now targeting as soon as early September 2026. (nasa.gov 1) (nasa.gov 2) Roman uses infrared light, which can pass through dust that blocks visible-light views, to survey deep and broad patches of sky. Its primary mirror is 2.4 meters wide, the same diameter as Hubble’s. (nasa.gov) The key instrument is the Wide Field Instrument, a 300-megapixel camera with a field of view at least 100 times larger than Hubble’s infrared instrument. NASA says Roman can survey the sky up to 1,000 times faster than Hubble while keeping similar sensitivity and infrared resolution. (nasa.gov 1) (nasa.gov 2) That wider view changes the kind of science astronomers can do. Hubble is built to study individual objects in detail, while Roman is built to count and map huge populations of galaxies, stars, and planets. (nasa.gov 1) (nasa.gov 2) NASA says Roman could measure light from a billion galaxies over its lifetime. The same surveys are designed to trace dark matter and dark energy by mapping how cosmic structure has grown over time. (nasa.gov) (nasa.gov) Roman will also watch the crowded center of the Milky Way for microlensing, a method that spots planets when a foreground star briefly magnifies a background one. NASA says that survey should find more than 1,000 exoplanets. (nasa.gov) A second instrument, the Coronagraph Instrument, is a technology demonstration that will block starlight so Roman can directly image some nearby exoplanets and planet-forming disks. (nasa.gov) (nasa.gov) Roman recently finished environmental testing, including vibration, acoustic, and thermal-vacuum trials meant to mimic launch and space conditions. NASA completed full assembly in November 2025. (nasa.gov) (nasa.gov) If the schedule holds, Roman will launch this September with Hubble and the James Webb Space Telescope already in orbit, adding a survey observatory that trades narrow portraits for giant sky maps. (nasa.gov) (nasa.gov)
