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CAPE CANAVERAL: NASA\u2019s new flagship astronomical observatory was launched from Florida on Sunday on a mission to probe some of the biggest mysteries in astrophysics and cosmology.<\/strong><\/p>\n The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, a roughly $4 billion project, was carried aloft from NASA\u2019s Kennedy Space Center aboard a SpaceX Falcon \u200cHeavy rocket.<\/span><\/p>\n The telescope is designed to investigate cosmic enigmas such as dark energy and dark matter, while also testing gravity at vast scales and searching for exoplanets, as planets beyond our solar system are called.<\/span><\/p>\n There were some weather concerns aheadof the launch but the rocket carried the telescope into space through blue skies and some scattered clouds.<\/span><\/p>\n Roman will travel through space toward an orbital location called Lagrange Point 2, situated about a million miles (1.6 million km) \u200bfrom Earth. Its mission is planned for five years, though the U.S. space agency said the telescope may have enough fuel for five additional years.<\/span><\/p>\n Roman will build on \u200bthe capabilities of other orbiting observatories such as the James Webb Space Telescope, launched in 2021, and the Hubble Space Telescope, launched in 1990.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIt will be \u2060as if Hubble and James Webb kind of peered through a keyhole at the universe, while Nancy Grace Roman will kick the door down,\u201d Nicola Fox, chief of NASA\u2019s Science Mission \u200bDirectorate, told reporters on Saturday.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cRoman has broadly the same sensitivity and sharpness of vision as Hubble, but we survey the sky much faster,\u201d Julie McEnery, Roman\u2019s senior project scientist at NASA\u2019s Goddard \u200bSpace Flight Center in Maryland, told reporters at a briefing in July.<\/span><\/p>\n McEnery said one month of Roman observations can survey our entire home galaxy.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cOne month of observations to survey our Milky Way galaxy would take about a century with Hubble,\u201d McEnery said.<\/span><\/p>\n Webb has provided a new understanding of the early history of the universe, finding among other things that primordial galaxies formed sooner and were bigger than previously known. \u200bWebb is capable of looking across vast distances and back into deep time, because of the time it takes light to travel.<\/span><\/p>\n Roman instead is able to take panoramic views. NASA likens \u200bRoman to a camera\u2019s wide-angle lens and Webb to a zoom lens.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWebb is designed to be able to probe very deeply and with exquisite sensitivity into the universe, so we can find rare things in \u200cthe early \u2060universe,\u201d McEnery said, while Roman offers \u201cthe large vision that complements the deep views that Webb provides.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Roman will help in the understanding of two mysterious cosmic components \u2014 dark energy and dark matter \u2014 by creating the most comprehensive 3D map of the universe to date. Its main survey, to take more than a year to complete, will cover more than two billion galaxies.<\/span><\/p>\n The Big Bang event roughly 13.8 billion years ago initiated the universe, and it has been expanding ever since. Scientists in 1998 disclosed that this expansion was actually accelerating, with an invisible force called dark energy as the \u200bhypothesized reason.<\/span><\/p>\n The universe\u2019s contents include ordinary matter \u2014 stars, \u200bplanets, gas, dust and all the familiar \u2060stuff on Earth \u2014 as well as dark matter and dark energy. Ordinary matter represents perhaps 5% of the contents. Dark matter, known through its gravitational influences on galaxies and stars, may represent about 27%. Dark energy may represent about 68%.<\/span><\/p>\n Using Roman to gauge dark matter\u2019s pull and \u200bdark energy\u2019s push across the universe will bring scientists closer than ever before to solving both mysteries, according to NASA.<\/span><\/p>\n Roman also will conduct \u200bone of the most \u2060comprehensive searches ever for exoplanets. It is expected to discover thousands of new ones and provide the first statistical census of planetary systems similar to our own.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cOne of the most exciting aspects of Roman is its discovery potential. Historically, major astronomical observatories have often made their most important breakthroughs in areas that scientists did not anticipate before launch,\u201d cosmologist Mustapha Ishak of the University of Texas at \u2060Dallas, a member \u200bof Roman\u2019s scientific collaboration, told Reuters.<\/span><\/p>\nWIDE ANGLE AND ZOOM LENSES<\/span><\/h2>\n