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Remember what astronomical images were like before we had the Hubble space telescope? Hubble was the first large optical telescope to be launched into space, above Earth\u2019s obscuring atmosphere. And it fundamentally changed our view of the cosmos. Astronomers say the Nancy Grace Roman space telescope will do that, too, giving us a view of the universe we\u2019ve never had before. The telescope will have a primary mirror of 2.4 meters in diameter (7.9 feet). That\u2019s the same size as Hubble. But a single image from the Nancy Grace Roman space telescope will equal the detail from 100 Hubble images<\/em>.<\/p>\n After its launch in 2027, this telescope is expected to answer fundamental questions about distant planets orbiting stars in our Milky Way galaxy, about the dark energy we haven\u2019t yet detected directly but believe makes up a substantial portion of our cosmos \u2026 and about what astronomers call the cosmic dawn<\/em>. <\/p>\n The telescope\u2019s Wide Field Instrument, its primary instrument, will have a field of view 100 times greater than Hubble\u2019s infrared instrument. Roman\u2019s large field of view means it can capture more sky in less time. NASA said Roman will eventually measure the light of 1 billion galaxies<\/em>. Closer to home, the Wide Field Instrument will scan the Milky Way for exoplanets, or planets orbiting distant stars. Over the past 30 years, since the early 1990s until now, we\u2019ve discovered about 5,000 exoplanets. The Nancy Grace Roman space telescope is expected to increase that number to some 100,000 exoplanets in the coming five to 10 years<\/em>.<\/p>\n Roman\u2019s other instrument is the Coronagraph Instrument. The Coronagraph Instrument will perform high contrast imaging and spectroscopy to gather more knowledge of individual exoplanets. More on the coronagraph below.<\/p>\n