This morning, the Roman Space Telescope was successfully launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Named for Nancy Grace Roman, the first Chief Astronomer at NASA, it will provide a broader and sharper view of the Universe than the Hubble Space Telescope, launched in 1990; it will also send back data at a much faster rate.
Whenever we look at the night sky we are looking into the past, when the light we see left the stars or was reflected by planets. Roman will be capable of viewing the Universe back to a couple of hundred million years after its birth (currently calculated to have been 13.8 billion years ago). It is also expected to unveil far more planets than previously documented and will significantly expand our understanding of dark matter and dark energy.
All of this data will improve our understanding of the formation and evolution of the Universe, a welcome development for scientists but yet another threat to those who rely on mysticism to explain our existence.
