00:00NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is preparing to launch.
00:04So, what is it?
00:06The Roman Space Telescope will investigate the biggest mysteries of the universe,
00:11including dark matter, dark energy, and exoplanets, or planets outside of our solar system.
00:18Roman will have a field of view at least 100 times larger than Hubble's,
00:22and it's possible that Roman will measure the light from a billion different galaxies.
00:27To be clear though, Roman isn't replacing Hubble.
00:30Instead, the two will coexist in space, like celestial co-workers,
00:35each using their unique strengths to see and study the universe in their own way.
00:40Roman has two main instruments on board,
00:43the Wide Field Instrument and the Coronograph Instrument.
00:46The Wide Field Instrument is essentially an incredibly powerful camera.
00:51It's a 300-megapixel camera complete with 18 different detectors.
00:55And while Hubble sees the universe in ultraviolet, visible, and near-infrared light,
01:00Roman sees visible light and infrared, though at different wavelengths than Hubble.
01:05These observations are made possible with a primary mirror spanning 7.9 feet or 2.4 meters across.
01:12Roman will also perform spectroscopy, meaning it will split light into its individual colors
01:18to reveal details about the makeup of objects and regions in space.
01:22And because Roman will also be able to image the sky up to a thousand times faster than Hubble,
01:27it will be able to conduct surveys of large areas of the cosmos,
01:31allowing researchers to look all the way to the edge of the observable universe.
01:35Moving on to the Roman Coronograph Instrument.
01:38While this is technically a technological demonstration,
01:42the mission's Coronograph will break new ground in the field of exoplanet science.
01:47Coronographs work by blocking out light so we can see what's nearby.
01:51If we just looked at a far-off star,
01:54the bright glare of that star might be too much for us to see planets in its orbit.
01:59Through a complicated series of masks and mirrors,
02:02the Roman Coronograph will block that starlight and allow us to directly image far-off planets.
02:07This will be our most powerful tool to directly image exoplanets yet.
02:13Who knows what we might find on these far-away worlds.
02:16And last but not least, I must mention Roman's namesake, Dr. Nancy Grace Roman,
02:21a pioneering astronomer nicknamed the Mother of Hubble for her work which made the Hubble Space Telescope possible.
02:29The first-ever Chief of Astronomy in the Office of Space Science at NASA,
02:33and the first-ever female executive at NASA at all,
02:38Roman made major scientific strides forward in classifying and understanding stars.
02:43And while she passed away in 2018, the legacy of her work will continue with this mission.
02:49So stay tuned right here at Space.com to follow along with All Things Roman and, as always, All Things
02:56Space.
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