Nasa Launches Powerful New Space Telescope

Nasa's powerful next-generation telescope has blasted off into space from its launchpad in Florida, with a mission to explore dark energy, black holes and other mysteries of the Universe.

The Nancy Grace Roman telescope will capture vast panoramic views of space, with a field of vision 100 times larger than both the Hubble and James Webb space telescopes, Nasa says.

The mission begins with a 100-day journey to a vantage point roughly one million miles from Earth, where the telescope will then start charting planets outside our solar system, known as exoplanets.

"Roman is going to change the way we look at the Universe," said Nicky Fox, a Nasa administrator.

About 30 minutes after launch, Roman separated from its SpaceX rocket and is now heading towards its orbiting point around a million miles away.

Fox said Roman "is going to discover tens of thousands, maybe even 100,000 new exoplanets" - referring to planets located outside of our solar system.

"Why do we care so much about exoplanets? Because one of our main goals at Nasa is answering the question, 'Are we alone in the universe'?" she added.

US President Donald Trump dialled in to the space agency's news conference to congratulate the scientists working on the project.

"You're the hottest in space, and we have the hottest country anywhere in the world. So, let's keep it all going. You're a big part of it," Trump said.

Astronomer Jenifer Millard said the telescope will be four times further from Earth than the Moon is, where a lot of infrared space cameras - made to pick up what she describes as "heat light"- operate.

She told the BBC this is to make sure infrared light from the Moon and Earth don't interfere with the cameras.

- Author: Grace Eliza Goodwin, BBC

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