'It's going to do things that currently are impossible': The Roman Space Telescope, NASA's next great observatory, is ready to launch Aug. 30

NASA's Roman Space Telescope is ready to launch on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket on Aug. 30. It'll map the entire sky like never before.

The top 3

  1. Roman's Wide-Field View vs. Hubble's Detailed Focus: The Roman Space Telescope shares Hubble's 2.4-meter primary mirror size, but its Wide Field Instrument (WFI) will capture images with a field of view at least 100 times larger than Hubble's infrared camera, enabling vast sky surveys with comparable resolution.
  2. Roman's Infrared Surveys Complement Webb's Deep Dives: While both Roman and the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) operate in infrared, Roman's mission is optimized for wide-field surveys, capturing vast areas of the sky 1,000 times faster than Hubble, while Webb focuses on deeper, higher-resolution observations of specific, distant objects.
  3. The Legacy of NASA's Great Observatories Program: Roman is the latest in NASA's 'Great Observatories' concept, a multi-wavelength fleet designed to provide a comprehensive view of the universe, following Hubble, Compton, Chandra, and Spitzer, and working in tandem with JWST.

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