Hey Star Gazers!

The Hubble Space Telescope# changed the way we see the universe and the James Webb Space Telescope is showing us the# earliest galaxies ever observed.

Now NASA is preparing to launch its next flagship observatory,# the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope.

And today we're going to go inside that mission with NASA# research astrophysicist Ami Choi to find out how this new observatory will transform the way that#we see space again.

The Nancy Grace Roman Space#Telescope is NASA's n... the Hubble and Webb space telescopes and Roman will# be revolutionary in two main areas.

One of them is understanding the ingredients and evolution of# the universe.

And we have a lot of observations that indicate that most of the universe, 95%, is# made out of mysterious dark matter, dark energy that we can't actually see with our own eyes.

Dark#matter and dark energy remain some of astronomy's biggest mysteries.

While scientists can't see them# or image them directly, they can observe how these things shape galaxies and influence the universe#o... of years.

Roman is designed to help#answer those questions.

The other science goal#that Roman will revolutionize is about counting and characterizing planets outside of our own# solar system.

So we call these exoplanets.

Roman will take a census or demographic# study of exoplanets.

And in particular, we expect to discover something from thousands to# hundreds of thousands of new exoplanets.

And to put that in context, we currently know about 6,000# exoplanets.

And so this would be a huge leap over what we currently know.

And additionally, the ones# that we see now, they tend to be easier to detect.

And so they tend to be more massive and also more# close into their host stars.

So you can think of, you know, Jupiter sized planets at distances from# their host stars at the distance of Mercury.

But we are going to be able to see with Roman more# planets in the habitable zones of their host stars and also a wider range of of masses.

And so these# observations I've described so far um they will be collected by our infrared camera.

We also have a# chronograph which is an instrument that's designed to block out the glare of a star so that you can# detect very faint objects like an exoplanet and#directly im... To make discoveries on that#scale, Roman needs to see much more of the sky at#once than previous telescopes.

It is literally#a wider angle camera.

With say Hubble, we'd be looking at some sort of quarter size region of# the sky.

But with Roman, it would be more like a dinner plate or frisbee portion of the sky.

And# so it's much more efficient.

That wide view won't#just help answer today's questions.

It may uncover#entirely new ones.

Roman opens up this whole other#dimension, I would say,... that could be#changing as a function of time.

And it's h... say what exactly the nature will be of what we# find, but I I think that's the really exciting#discovery sp... The telescope is also#named after a woman whose vision helped make#modern astronomy possible.

So cool.

We're named#after Nancy Grace Roman.

So she was the first Chief of Astronomy at NASA starting from 1960.

And# she was instrumental in even the concept of having a a telescope out in space.

So, you know, people# for many years have been looking up at the sky through ground-based telescopes.

But then the idea# of sending such a telescope out into space was a completely new thing that she pioneered.

And so# she was instrumental in getting Hubble out there and so you know in honor of her, we're named the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope.

Today, the telescope that bears her name will continue# her legacy, building on Hubble and Webb while opening the door to discoveries that we can't even# imagine yet.

And the data from these discoveries are right around the corner.

Roman is going to#have its data available to the public basically immediately after it passes through the processing# pipelines.

And that's a pretty exciting level of accessibility which I don't think has much# precedence.

And it means that people all over the world can take a look at this data, find# potentially new phenomena, also like unlocking the mysteries of the universe.

I think having# that access to more people and getting people excited about science, that's the thing that I# I'm most excited for Roman to do.

Huge thanks to Ami Choi for giving us a behind-the-scenes# look at the incredible science behind the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope.

It's set to launch on# August 30th.

When Roman does launch, it won't just capture the universe.

It'll map it at a scale# we've never seen before.

And who knows, the biggest discovery might be something we haven't# even imagined yet.

To stay up to date on the mission and its discoveries, visit nasa.gov/roman.# And remember, Star Gazers, keep looking up.

Do you want to know more about the night sky, space# exploration, astronomy?

Let us know down in the comments what you want to know.

And in# the meantime, click this video to learn more.