Share with friends and circles of friends with wechat scanning QR code < / P > < p > < p > on July 21, NASA announced on Tuesday local time that it would use SpaceX's heavy Falcon rocket to launch the Roman space telescope into space p> The Roman space telescope is a supplement to the Weber space telescope and is similar to the Hubble Space Telescope in many ways. Its main mirror is the same size as Hubble's, but the field of view provided by the wide field instrument is 100 times that of Hubble's infrared instrument. In addition, the Roman telescope will carry a coronagraph to study the extrasolar world p> NASA said that the heavy Falcon rocket will lift off from Launch Pad 39A of NASA Kennedy Space Center in Florida with a telescope in 2026. NASA announced that it would pay SpaceX $255million, including launch services "and other mission related costs" p>
at present, the heavy Falcon rocket has been launched three times, the most famous of which is the launch of a dummy riding a Tesla electric sports car in 2018. NASA chose the heavy Falcon rocket in the hope of carrying more fuel and surpassing the main Falcon 9 rocket of SpaceX p>
the destination of the Roman space telescope is L2 Lagrange point, which is about 1.5 million kilometers away from the earth. The Weber space telescope also operates in this orbit. Therefore, flying there directly requires more fuel p>
the Roman space telescope, formerly known as the wide area Infrared Survey Telescope (wfirst), was changed to its current name in 2020 to commemorate the contribution of Nancy grace Roman, NASA's first female chief astronomer, to the planning of the Hubble Space Telescope. According to NASA's plan, the Roman space telescope will help scientists study dark energy and dark matter in the infrared band, which are considered to be the main components of the structure of the universe p> < p > the Roman space telescope will also use a technology called "microlens" to study exoplanets and the subtle space-time "distortion" caused by planets rotating around their parent stars p>
nasa said that the Roman space telescope can detect the extrasolar world that Weber space telescope can see with a clearer perspective, which is farther than the detection distance of the transit extrasolar planet survey satellite (TESS). (Chenchen)