The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope: Launch and Cosmology Prospects

by Prof. David Rubin (University of Hawaii, Physics and Astronomy)

Thursday Sep 17, 2026, 3:30 PM → 4:30 PM Pacific/Honolulu

Room 112 (Watanabe Hall)

The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is a NASA flagship observatory that has just launched to Sun--Earth L2. Roman carries both a coronagraph and a wide-field optical–near-infrared instrument with a field of view roughly 100--200 times larger than those of Hubble and JWST. I will discuss Roman’s planned surveys and how its enormous, high-resolution imaging data sets will probe dark energy, the growth of cosmic structure, gravitational lensing, and Type Ia supernovae. I will also highlight some of the major opportunities and challenges as Roman begins a new era of precision cosmology.

Nancy Grace Roman Telescope at NASA