Roman, Hubble, and Webb are now in space – each seeing the universe in a different way.
Hubble sees sharply. Webb sees deeply. Roman sees widely.
NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope launched from Florida on August 30 aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket.
The $4 billion observatory is now traveling approximately 1 million miles (1.6 million kilometers) to the second Sun-Earth Lagrange point, known as L2. It will spend about three months reaching its destination and completing tests before NASA releases its first images, expected by early 2027.
Roman’s specialty is seeing the bigger picture.
Its 7.9-foot (2.4-meter) mirror is the same size as Hubble’s, but its field of view is at least 100 times wider. A single Roman image can capture roughly the same area as 100 Hubble images while maintaining similar sharpness.
That will allow Roman to survey the universe up to 1,000 times faster than Hubble. It will study more than a billion galaxies, investigate dark matter and dark energy, and search for more than 1,000 planets beyond our solar system.
Hubble, meanwhile, remains astronomy’s precision observer.
Orbiting roughly 320 miles (515 kilometers) above Earth, it studies the universe in ultraviolet, visible, and near-infrared light. Since 1990, Hubble has captured detailed views of planets, stars, nebulae, and distant galaxies, helping scientists measure the age and expansion of the universe.
Webb looks deeper.
Located near L2, the James Webb Space Telescope uses a 21-foot (6.5-meter) mirror and powerful infrared instruments to examine some of the earliest galaxies, peer through clouds of cosmic dust, and study the atmospheres of distant planets.
Roman will find enormous numbers of objects across wide areas of the sky. Webb can then examine selected targets in extraordinary detail, while Hubble adds observations at wavelengths the other two cannot fully see.