RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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NASA launched its newest space telescope, undertaking its biggest mission yet to study the universe on a much larger scale. A roughly $4 billion project, the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will allow scientists to get panoramic views of space and better understand the nature of powerful forces known as dark energy and dark matter. Miles O'Brien joined Amna Nawaz to discuss more. Amna Nawaz: Yesterday, NASA launched its newest space telescope, the Nancy Grace Roman, undertaking its biggest mission yet, to study the universe on a much larger scale. During a press conference with NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman, the project's leader spelled out how this new telescope differed from its predecessors. Nicola Fox, NASA Associate Administrator: Roman is going to change the way we look at the universe. It is going to discover tens of thousands, maybe even 100,000 new exoplanets. And when you kind of think that, in 1990, when we launched Hubble, we didn't even know there were exoplanets, and so how far we have come. We know there are 6,000 now. And then there will be maybe 100,000 at the end of Roman's mission. Amna Nawaz: A roughly $4 billion project, the Roman will allow scientists to get panoramic views of space and better understand the nature of powerful forces known as dark energy and dark matter. Our science correspondent, Miles O'Brien, is here to help us fill in the picture. Miles, dark energy and dark matter, you had me at both. But we already had the Hubble. We have the James Webb Space Telescope. What does the Roman add? Miles O'Brien: Yes, you have to think about it as a fleet, Amna. The Roman is the scout. It's the big and powerful wide-angle lens. It has a mirror that is the same diameter as Hubble. But it's 100 times more precise. And when you combine that with its speed, it's basically able to survey the universe 1,000 times faster than Hubble. And that's where you come up with these huge numbers where it will look out into the cosmos and identify things that we only have seen a fraction of heretofore. And once you have that kind of data, and it's going to come down at about 1.5 terabyte a day. Imagine that. That's a lot of data. Scientists hope they will be able to fill in this mystery. Basically, 95 percent of the universe, we don't know much about. We're in the dark with dark energy and dark matter. Amna Nawaz: And those are two of its big targets, dark energy and dark matter. Professor O'Brien, explain to us what the difference is. Miles O'Brien: Well, dark matter is like the invisible scaffolding that holds the universe together. We know that the way planets revolve around each other and the way the universe works, there has to be some gravitational force there that we call dark matter that holds it all together, the glue. Dark energy, on the other hand is this kind of mysterious force that causes the universe to expand and accelerate as it expands. In both cases, it's invisible, and, to this day, astronomers don't know what they are. But maybe all this data that we get from Roman will lead astronomers closer to some answers. Amna Nawaz: But if it's invisible, how does a telescope help us to figure out something we can't actually see? Miles O'Brien: Well, it will look at things like the way that the light is bent by gravity. So it's sort of like understanding a tree by looking at its shadow. We know that the gravity can bend light, gravitational lensing, it's called. And that can give them some insights to the force of that gravitational pull. As for the dark energy, it's such a mystery, no one really knows what that is. So they're kind of just wondering what's going to -- what they're going to find. And this is kind of the beauty of science. They're going to go out there, point this powerful instrument, and you can bet, Amna, that they will find some things they can't even imagine. Amna Nawaz: OK, so the Roman joins a remarkable, impressive fleet of telescopes already out there in space. Why is it so important to have them all out there together? Miles O'Brien: They complement each other. And it's worth pointing out Nancy Grace Roman joined NASA in 1959. She was the first astronomer for NASA, the first executive level female. She didn't just shatter the glass ceiling there. She found it, identified it, and went through it like a rocket. And she was the one who was sort of described as the mother of Hubble and all the other space-based astronomy instruments that are out there for NASA. So it is fitting that she has her own platform, and it will be the one that will be feeding information to the Webb, to the Hubble, to the Chandra X-ray Observatory, each of them operating in different wavelengths. And if they find something interesting to look at by virtue of Roman, they will pass it off to Webb and say, hey, Webb, take a deep dive, or send it over to Chandra and say, let's look at it in the X-rays, or send it over to Hubble and say, what about ultraviolet? You combine all these, and astronomers get very excited. Amna Nawaz: They get excited. You get excited too. That's why we love to hear you talk about it. Science correspondent Miles O'Brien, always great to talk to you. Thank you. Miles O'Brien: You're welcome.
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