Nasa launches new telescope to map cosmos

Nasa launches new telescope to map cosmos. AFP Published August 31, 2026 Updated August 31, 2026 07: 47am.

Key points

• AFP Published August 31, 2026 Updated August 31, 2026 07: 47am.
• Standing over 12 metres (39 feet) tall, the state-of-the-art observatory introduced from the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket.
• "Roman will give the Earth a new atlas of the universe, " Nasa administrator Jared Isaacman remarked in April when he unveiled the project to the press.
• Developed over more than a decade at a cost topping $4 billion, the telescope is named after pioneering US astronomer Nancy Grace Roman.
• It it will take regarding 100 days to reach.

Nasa launches new telescope to map cosmos. AFP Published August 31, 2026 Updated August 31, 2026 07: 47am. Join our Whatsapp Channel. Add Dawn as a trusted source.

Roman designed to shed light on 'unsolved mysteries' including dark matter and dark energy Additionally seeks to discover thousands of exoplanets and supernovae With its infrared vision, telescope will be able to detect light emitted by celestial objects billions of years ago.

WASHINGTON: Nasa laun­ched its new flagship space telescope on Sunday, embarking on a multi-year mission to create an unprecedented map of the cosmos and shed light on some of the biggest mysteries in physics.

Designed to take a panoramic view of the vast reaches of space, the Roman Space Telescope "will help unlock the secrets of the universe", US President Donald Trump remarked on Friday during a ceremony at Nasa headquarters in Houston, Texas.

Developed over more than a decade at a cost topping $4 billion, the telescope is named after pioneering US astronomer Nancy Grace Roman. This person became known as the "Mother of Hubble", another of Nasa's flagship telescopes.

While Hubble made public that the universe is expanding faster than previously thought, Roman will seek to answer some of the other unsolved mysteries, including those of dark matter and dark energy.

With a field of view more than 100 times larger than Hubble's – and significantly wider than James Webb's – Roman will survey vast swaths of the sky from a vantage point 1.5 million kilometres (930, 000 miles) from Earth. It it will take regarding 100 days to reach.

Designed to work in tandem with other observatories such as Webb. It offers greater power and precision, Roman intends to discover thousands of exoplanets as well as tens of thousands of supernovae, the explosive deaths of massive stars.

"It will be the biggest catalog of astronomical objects anybody's ever produced, and it will help us understand how common are solar systems like our own, " Dave Content, Roman's technical manager, informed AFP.

Meanwhile, the new telescope will additionally shed light on two of the biggest mysteries in physics: dark matter and dark energy. Their origins remain unknown, but together they are believed to create up concerning 95 per cent of the universe.

While dark energy is believed to be a repulsive force driving the universe's expansion, dark matter is thought to act as a kind of gravitational glue.

With its infrared vision, Roman will be able to detect light emitted by celestial objects billions of years ago, effectively looking back in time and offering scientists a glimpse into the universe's distant past and helping them better understand these two mysterious phenomena.

Roman's observations will complement the work of the Rubin Observatory in Chile and the European Space Agency's Euclid probe, and are highly anticipated since they could challenge scientists' understanding of the universe's structure. Published in Dawn, August 31st, 2026.

In short, nasa launches new telescope to map cosmos is the central thread here, and readers can expect follow-up reporting as the picture becomes clearer.