{"id":1035538,"date":"2026-08-31T20:14:15","date_gmt":"2026-08-31T20:14:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1035538\/"},"modified":"2026-08-31T20:14:15","modified_gmt":"2026-08-31T20:14:15","slug":"apod-2026-august-31-launch-of-the-roman-space-telescope","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1035538\/","title":{"rendered":"APOD: 2026 August 31 \u2013 Launch of the Roman Space Telescope"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"p-md margin-0 media-detail-hero__description\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<strong>Explanation:<\/strong> A new telescope has been launched <a href=\"https:\/\/apod.nasa.gov\/apod\/ap021124.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">into space<\/a> to study the universe. The <a href=\"https:\/\/science.nasa.gov\/mission\/roman-space-telescope\/who-is-nancy-grace-roman\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Nancy Grace Roman<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/science.nasa.gov\/mission\/roman-space-telescope\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Space Telescope<\/a> (RST) has the same size main mirror as the <a href=\"https:\/\/science.nasa.gov\/mission\/hubble\/overview\/about-hubble\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Hubble Space Telescope<\/a> (HST) but sees 100 times more sky during each snapshot. This is possible because when compared to HST, RST&#8217;s main mirror is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.skyatnightmagazine.com\/advice\/what-is-a-fast-telescope\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">more curved<\/a>, its secondary mirror is closer, and its <a href=\"https:\/\/science.nasa.gov\/mission\/roman-space-telescope\/wide-field-instrument\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">main camera<\/a> is larger. The result is that <a href=\"https:\/\/science.nasa.gov\/mission\/roman-space-telescope\/science\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">RST can inspect<\/a> more of the sky more quickly, likely allowing, among other capabilities, the discovery of <a href=\"https:\/\/science.nasa.gov\/mission\/roman-space-telescope\/type-ia-supernovae\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">many more supernovas<\/a> which tell us more about the expansion rate and <a href=\"https:\/\/apod.nasa.gov\/apod\/ap241020.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">composition<\/a> of our <a href=\"https:\/\/apod.nasa.gov\/apod\/ap231231.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">universe<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/apod.nasa.gov\/apod\/ap220814.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">many more planets<\/a> orbiting other stars that tell us more about the possibilities for <a href=\"https:\/\/science.nasa.gov\/exoplanets\/search-for-life\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">life elsewhere<\/a> in the universe. RST will <a href=\"https:\/\/www.esa.int\/Science_Exploration\/Space_Science\/L2_the_second_Lagrangian_Point\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">orbit the Sun<\/a>, not the Earth, like the <a href=\"https:\/\/science.nasa.gov\/mission\/webb\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">James Webb Space Telescope<\/a>. The <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/9wq3VHsL_bE?t=4028\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">featured video<\/a> shows <a href=\"https:\/\/www.stsci.edu\/roman\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Roman<\/a> being launched yesterday from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/kennedy\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Kennedy Space Center<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Map_of_Florida_Regions_with_Cities.svg\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Florida<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/user.iiasa.ac.at\/~marek\/fbook\/04\/print\/us.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">USA<\/a> aboard a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.spacex.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">SpaceX<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.spacex.com\/vehicles\/falcon-heavy\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Falcon Heavy<\/a> rocket.<\/p>\n<p><strong>APOD&#8217;s main NASA site is <a href=\"https:\/\/asterisk.apod.com\/viewtopic.php?t=45023\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">moving<\/a>:<\/strong> From <a href=\"https:\/\/apod.nasa.gov\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">apod.nasa.gov<\/a> to <a href=\"https:\/\/science.nasa.gov\/apod\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">science.nasa.gov\/apod<\/a><br \/><strong>Tomorrow&#8217;s picture: <\/strong>eclipse flight\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Explanation: A new telescope has been launched into space to study the universe. The Nancy Grace Roman Space&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1035539,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[24],"tags":[390123,159,783,67,132,68],"class_list":["post-1035538","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-apod","tag-science","tag-space","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117191958310917165","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1035538","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1035538"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1035538\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1035539"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1035538"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1035538"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1035538"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}