The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope launches to study dark matter and dark energy

NASA has launched the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope after years of funding challenges and a name change. The observatory will travel about one million miles to the Sun-Earth L2 point, where it will use a wide-field infrared camera and coronagraph to survey the universe and image exoplanets.

Roman could sharply expand astronomers’ ability to study dark energy and dark matter by scanning far more sky, far faster than Hubble. Its exoplanet imaging tools also signal a broader trend toward space telescopes that combine cosmology missions with direct planet-hunting capabilities.