In 2021, NASA revealed the world’s largest telescope to date – the James Webb telescope. Since then, it’s power has astounded us all – to the famous image of the Pillars of Creaton, or images captured of exoplanets, it has helped us explore the deepest parts of space. But after all of this, what could NASA possibly have in store next? Well, it turns out NASA already has plans.
The next telescope to launch is called the Nancy Grace Roman Telescope, which will help us understand dark energy, exoplanets, and infrared astrophysics.
The telescope will use a primary mirror which is 7.9 feet in diameter. It will also have two instruments that help operate it, the Wide Field Instrument, and the Coronagraph instrument. The Wide Field Instrument will have a field of view 100 times grater than Hubble, which will help capture more of space then ever before.
The primary operator of the telescope will be the Wide Field Instrument, which will measure light from a billion galaxies during it’s mission. According to NASA, the telescope will find around 2,600 exoplanets during it’s mission.
The Roman Space Telescope will have a mission lifespan of 5 years, with a possibility of extending it to ten years if needed.
