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NASA Launches Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope to Study Dark Universe

12 sources across 9 countries

Who reported this

  • G1 Brazil · Centre-left · Grupo Globo (Marinho family)
  • CNN Brasil Brazil · Centre · Rubens Menin (MRV)
  • Folha de S.Paulo Brazil · Centre · Grupo Folha (Frias family)
  • Der Spiegel Germany · Centre-left · ~50% staff-owned
  • Frankfurter Allgemeine Germany · Centre-right · FAZIT-Stiftung (foundation)
  • La Tercera Chile · Centre-right · Copesa (Saieh family)
  • El Espectador Colombia · Centre-left · Grupo Santo Domingo
  • Telex Hungary · Centre · Reader-funded, staff-owned
  • The Indian Express India · Centre · Indian Express Group (Goenka family)
  • ANSA Italy · Centre · Publisher cooperative
  • El Pais Spain · Centre-left · Grupo PRISA
  • Reuters United Kingdom · Centre · Thomson Reuters Corporation

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NASA successfully launched the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope on Sunday from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The observatory departed aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket and is traveling toward the second Sun Earth Lagrange point, known as L2, located approximately 1.6 million kilometers from Earth. This orbital position is also shared by the James Webb Space Telescope.

The Roman telescope is designed to investigate fundamental mysteries of the cosmos, specifically dark energy and dark matter. While the James Webb telescope focuses on small areas with high detail, the Roman telescope features a field of view at least 100 times larger than that of the Hubble Space Telescope. This wide field of view will allow it to map billions of galaxies and search for tens of thousands of exoplanets, including rogue planets that do not orbit a star.

Developed over more than a decade with an investment of approximately 4 billion dollars, the telescope is roughly the size of a bus. It is equipped with a 2.4 meter primary mirror, which is the same size as the Hubble mirror, but it utilizes significantly more advanced sensor technology. The mission is expected to generate massive amounts of data, with some reports estimating 500 terabytes per year. NASA plans to release the first science images in early 2027.

The telescope is named after Nancy Grace Roman, a pioneer in astronomy and the first chief of astronomy at NASA. It will work in complement with the Hubble and James Webb telescopes to provide a more comprehensive atlas of the universe. The mission has an initial duration of five years, though it may be extendable to ten.

How each side framed it

Centre-left
These outlets emphasized the telescope's capabilities relative to Hubble and Webb, while also highlighting the historical significance of Nancy Grace Roman.
Centre
These outlets focused on the scientific objectives, the technical specifications of the telescope, and the broader cosmological questions being addressed.
Centre-right
These outlets highlighted the project's budget efficiency and the fact that it was completed ahead of schedule compared to other NASA missions.

Sources

100% of the statements in this article were traced back to the source articles listed above.