What is the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope and why is it called Hubble's wide-eyed successor?

The answer

The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, set to launch in late 2026, will carry a camera with the same resolution as Hubble but a field of view 100 times wider - allowing it to survey vast swaths of sky in a single exposure. Named after NASA's first chief astronomer (the 'Mother of Hubble'), Roman is designed to answer fundamental questions about dark energy, dark matter, and exoplanets. Its coronagraph instrument will directly image planets around other stars by blocking starlight. The telescope will conduct a massive survey of billions of galaxies to map how the universe's expansion has changed over time, potentially revealing the nature of the mysterious force accelerating cosmic expansion.