The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope launches to study dark matter and dark energy

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The telescope will survey our universe 1,000 times faster than Hubble.

The telescope will survey our universe 1,000 times faster than Hubble.

by Terrence O'Brien

Aug 30, 2026, 4:36 PM UTC

Terrence O'Brien

is the Verge’s weekend editor. He’s covered the tech industry for over 18 years and knows a thing or two about synths.

After funding struggles and a name change, the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope has been successfully launched. It will now make a three-month, one-million-mile journey to its orbit at the second Sun-Earth Lagrange point (L2) beyond the Moon.

From this vantage point, Roman will conduct an unprecedented survey of the universe. Its field of view is 100 times larger than Hubble’s and, according to NASA, it can survey the sky 1,000 times faster using its 300-megapixel infrared camera. Roman also has a Coronagraph system that can block and mask glare from stars, allowing it to directly image exoplanets, even smaller, older, and colder planets orbiting close to their stars.

Roman will also conduct detailed 3D scans to help map the distribution of dark matter and narrow down the potential candidates for its makeup. Using the same 3D scans and gravitational lensing measurements, Roman will attempt to map how dark energy shaped the evolution of the universe.

Nicky Fox, associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA, said in a press release that “Roman will be a discovery machine that will bring us closer than ever before to answering humanity’s most profound questions about our cosmic history.”

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Terrence O'Brien