NASA's new space telescope is seeing even more sharply than planned
Beyond EarthFrom: ScienceDaily · rewritten for kids by Osmo
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NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is performing better than scientists expected after a long series of tests and precision adjustments. Engineers moved a mirror by just one-sixteenth the width of a human hair, bringing the telescope's instruments into near-perfect alignment. Its Wide Field Instrument, the main camera, now produces images nearly 30% better than predicted. That matters because Roman's mission is to make sweeping surveys of the sky to investigate dark matter and dark energy, two of the biggest unsolved mysteries about the universe.
Big word
telescope: A tool that collects light so we can see things that are very far away.
Quiz time: circle the right answer
1. How much did engineers move the mirror?AOne metreBOne-sixteenth the width of a hairCHalf a centimetre
2. How much better are Roman's pictures than expected?ANearly 30% betterBTwice as goodCA tiny bit worse
3. What will Roman help scientists study?ADark matter and dark energyBOcean fishCVolcanoes on Earth
Your turn
Hold a magnifying glass or a glass of water over a page. Move it a tiny bit. Draw how the words look when they are sharp and when they are blurry.
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