University of Arizona astronomers will be watching the launch of the newest orbiting telescope this weekend.
The Nancy Grace Roman space telescope is scheduled for liftoff from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida Sunday morning. University of Arizona astronomer Tim Eifler says the satellite will be put into orbit a million miles from Earth.
“Because it is so far away from Earth, the heat that is emitted from Earth itself does not disturb some of these very sensitive telescopes and that is a huge advantage,” Eifler said.
If everything goes as planned, the Roman Space Telescope will join the James Webb Space Telescope in the same deep space neighborhood. Both satellites use instruments designed and manufactured by scientists at the University of Arizona.
The Roman Space Telescope is named for Nancy Grace Roman, who served as NASA's first female executive in the 1960s.
