NASA's Roman telescope set to launch on cosmic mapping mission

NASA's Roman space telescope is set to launch on Sunday, marking the start of a multiyear mission to create an unprecedented map of the cosmos. The telescope, named after U.S. astronomer Nancy Grace Roman, will help uncover mysteries in physics, including dark matter and dark energy. It will survey vast swaths of the sky with a field of view more than 100 times larger than Hubble's, and will take about 100 days to reach Earth. The telescope will work in tandem with other observatories like Webb to detect light from celestial objects billions of years ago, offering insights into the universe's early expansion. The launch is scheduled for 7:26 a.m. (1126 GMT) from Florida aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket. The telescope is expected to generate about 1.3 terabytes of data a day, making it difficult to download to individual laptops. NASA administrator Jared Isaacman said the telescope will provide a new atlas of the universe. The mission will help scientists understand the structure of the universe and the origins of dark matter and dark energy. The data will be accessible to scientists and the public, though the sheer volume will be challenging. The telescope's observations may challenge current models of the universe's early expansion.

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