Nasa’s powerful next-generation space telescope has blasted off into space from its launchpad in Florida, with a mission to explore dark energy, black holes and other mysteries of the universe.
The Nancy Grace Roman telescope will capture vast panoramic views of space, with a field of vision at least 100 times larger than the famous Hubble Space Telescope.
The mission begins with a 100-day journey to a vantage point roughly one million miles from Earth, where the telescope will then start charting planets outside our solar system, known as exoplanets.
“Roman is going to change the way we look at the universe,” said Nicky Fox, a Nasa administrator.
“It is going to discover, tens of thousands, maybe even 100,000 new exoplanets.”
US President Donald Trump dialled in to Nasa’s news conference on Sunday morning to congratulate the scientists working on the project.
“You’re the hottest in space, and we have the hottest country anywhere in the world. So let’s keep it all going. You’re a big part of it,” Trump said.
