NASA estimates the pandemic ballooned costs by $3 billion — here are the projects to take the biggest hit

<ul class="summary-list"><li><keyword id="6360409" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="Nasa">NASA</keyword> just named its next "great observatory" after Dr. <keyword id="5907437" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="Nancy-Grace-Roman">Nancy Grace Roman</keyword>, the <keyword id="41531" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="space">space</keyword> agency's first chief astronomer and woman executive.</li><li>Roman earned the nickname "mother of Hubble" for pioneering the concepts behind the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/hubble-telescope-galaxies-photo-legacy-wide-field-deep-universe-2019-5">Hubble Space Telescope</a> — the first of NASA's great space-based observatories.</li><li>The <keyword id="9257207" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="nancy-grace-roman-space-telescope">Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope</keyword> was formerly called WFIRST, which stands for Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope.</li><li>The new telescope will have 100 times the view of Hubble. It's expected to photograph thousands of <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-google-kepler-new-planets-artificial-intelligence-2017-12">new exoplanets</a> and probe the nature of dark energy. </li></ul><p>NASA just named its next space observatory for the woman who pioneered the very idea of launching <keyword id="62018" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Telescopes">telescopes</keyword> into orbit.</p><p>Dr. Nancy Grace Roman spent 21 years at NASA developing and launching space-based observatories that studied the sun, deep space, and Earth's atmosphere. She most famously worked to develop the concepts behind the <keyword id="145693" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="Hubble-Space-Telescope">Hubble Space Telescope</keyword>, which just spent its 30th year in orbit.</p><p><div type="image" title="nancy grace roman james webb telescope hubble" height="2588" width="2000" msid="75856987" hostid="261"></div></p><p>Roman earned the nickname "mother of Hubble" for her role in pushing for that telescope. When it launched in 1990, Hubble became the first of NASA's "great observatories," which are designed to push the limits of human knowledge about the cosmos.</p><p>Roman also served as NASA's first Chief of Astronomy, making her the first woman to hold an executive position at the agency. She died in 2018.</p><p>Roman "had huge influence in all of astronomy and space," Thomas Zurbuchen, NASA's associate administrator for <keyword id="41551" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="100" keywordseo="science">science</keyword>, said in a NASA <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yNnvWem8V3U">video</a> announcing the name. </p><p>Zurbuchen said Roman's work led space astronomy to where it is today.</p><p>"For that reason: that vision, that foresight … that leadership on the inside of the agency," Zurbuchen said, "that really makes her, I think, the only name that is appropriate for this large space telescope that we're building now."</p><h2>The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will hunt for new planets and dark energy</h2><p><div type="image" title="wfirst telescope" height="1534" width="2045" msid="75856990" hostid="261"></div></p><p>NASA plans to launch the new telescope, which was originally called the Wide Field InfraRed Survey Telescope (WFIRST), into Earth's orbit in the mid-2020s.</p><p>Over its five-year lifetime, the Roman Space Telescope will measure light from a billion galaxies and survey the inner Milky Way with the hope of finding about 2,600 new planets and photographing them.</p><p>The new observatory will have a field of view 100 times greater than Hubble's. Each of its photos will be equivalent to about 100 Hubble images' worth of pixels.</p><p><div type="image" title="wfirst view vs hubble telescope" height="497" width="910" msid="75856993" hostid="261"></div></p><p>That breadth will help scientists test Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity and search for signs of "dark energy," a mysterious force that makes up 68% of the universe and <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/universe-expansion-crisis-cosmology-new-physics-hubble-constant-2019-10">drives its expansion</a>. </p><p>"[Roman] is somebody I've really admired. It makes me excited and proud to be associated with a mission that's named after her. This is something I'm going to enjoy day after day as the mission continues," Julie McInery, the deputy project scientist for the telescope, said in a statement.</p><h2>'I was told, from the beginning, that women could not be scientists'</h2><p><div type="image" title="nancy grace roman solar observatory" height="1534" width="2046" msid="75856995" hostid="261"></div></p><p>Roman was born in Nashville, Tennessee, on May 16, 1925. As a child, she loved to draw the moon. Her mother, a music teacher, would take her on nighttime walks to point out constellations and the ribbons of the aurora borealis. Her father, a geophysicist, answered her "scientific questions," she <a href="https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/people/225/nancy-roman-1925-2018/">told NASA in 2017</a>.</p><p>Throughout childhood, her love of the cosmos grew. Between the fifth and sixth grades, Roman organized an astronomy club among her friends to study the constellations. By seventh grade, she knew she wanted to be an astronomer.</p><p>"I knew it was going to take me another 12 years of schooling, but I figured I'd try and if I didn't make it, I could teach physics or math in high school," she told NASA.</p><p>She graduated in 1949 from the University of Chicago with a PhD in astronomy — one of the few women in the world to earn such a degree at the time. </p><p>"I certainly did not receive any encouragement. I was told, from the beginning, that women could not be scientists," Roman told NASA. "My thesis professor? There was a period where he went six months without speaking to me, even when I said hello to him in the hall. He didn't want to have anything to do with me."</p><h2>Roman rallied scientists, engineers, and legislators to make Hubble happen</h2><p><div type="image" title="nancy grace roman nasa" height="720" width="960" msid="75856997" hostid="261"></div></p><p>Roman's first job after leaving the University of Chicago was in the radio astronomy program at the US Naval Research Laboratory in Washington. At the time, American radio astronomers usually built their own instruments — an undertaking that had more to do with mechanics than with studying the universe.</p><p>"I did not want to start over as an engineer," Roman told NASA. "I enjoyed the work, so I wasn't looking terribly actively for a new job. But when NASA came along and offered me a job I decided to take it."</p><p>That was in 1959, when the agency was just six months old. At work, Roman began to use the prefix "Dr." with her name.</p><p>"Otherwise, I could not get past the secretaries," she <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/atoms/files/making_the_invisible_visible-tagged.pdf">recalled</a>.</p><p>A few months later, she heard that the agency was looking for someone to set up a space astronomy program.</p><p>"I knew that taking on this responsibility would mean that I could no longer do research," she told NASA. "But the challenge of formulating a program from scratch that I believed would influence astronomy for decades to come was too great to resist."</p><p><div type="image" title="nancy grace roman hubble space telescope nasa" height="1364" width="1819" msid="75857000" hostid="261"></div></p><p>That's when Roman became the agency's chief of astronomy and began developing the concepts for Hubble — an idea that had been kicked around since the mid-1940s, primarily by astronomer Lyman Spitzer, but never moved forward.</p><p>"Being the first executive woman at NASA turned out not to be terribly eventful. I was accepted very readily as a scientist in my job," Roman said.</p><p>One of the first things she did at NASA was to organize top astronomers and engineers from across the country in 1960, then have them "sit down together and come up with something that the engineers thought would work, and that the astronomers thought would do their job," she said.</p><p>"Beyond that, my job was trying to convince first NASA, and then the bureau of the budget, and the executive part of government, and then Congress, that was worth doing," Roman added.</p><h2>'Nancy Grace Roman deserves a place in the heavens'</h2><p>Though Roman retired from NASA in 1969, she continued to consult for the space agency, and her early organization and advocacy planted the seeds that ultimately led to Hubble and the Great Observatories program.</p><p>Hubble launched in 1990 aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery. In the three decades since, the telescope has taken more than 1.4 million observations, and astronomers have used that data to publish more than 17,000 peer-reviewed scientific publications, according to <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/content/about-the-hubble-story">NASA</a>.</p><p><div type="image" title="Eagle Nebula Messier 16 Hubble" height="2000" width="1918" msid="75857003" hostid="261"></div></p><p>Hubble's lens has captured stunning <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/best-photos-of-space-planets-cosmos-2019-12">images</a> of distant planets, violent space collisions, and the births and deaths of galaxies and stars. It has helped scientists learn the secrets of dark matter, measure the universe's expansion, and determine that most galaxies have a supermassive black hole at their centers.</p><p>"It's hard to decide how history will decide to view my accomplishments," Roman told NASA. "People generally aren't terribly interested in what gets things started, and so I'm not sure they're going to have much of an idea of my role."</p><p>But in giving the next telescope her name, NASA is ensuring that the "mother of Hubble" and her contributions to studying the cosmos won't fade.</p><p>"Nancy Grace Roman deserves a place in the heavens she studied and opened for so many," Zurbuchen said.</p>Read the original article on <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nancy-grace-roman-biography-wfirst-space-telescope-observatory-name-2020-5">Business Insider</a>

NASA's powerful new space telescope will be named after Nancy Grace Roman — the agency's first female executive, known as the 'mother of Hubble'

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Kari Bosley is the lead mission planner for the James Webb Space Telescope at the Space Telescope Science Institute.</li><li>She was told growing up she couldn't be part of aviation because of her gender.</li></ul><p><em>This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Kari Bosley, about her career as lead mission planner for the James Webb Space Telescope at the Space Telescope Science Institute, which partners with NASA to run missions. It has been edited for length and clarity.</em></p><p>I wasn't always interested in space, but I always wanted to fly. When I was a little girl, <a href="https://www.insider.com/historical-icons-in-their-20s-2018-9?_gl=1*1d479wb*_ga*MTY2MTYzODg5NS4xNjg4MDY4MjQy*_ga_E21CV80ZCZ*MTY5NDE5Njc0MC4xNTAuMS4xNjk0MTk2NzY2LjM0LjAuMA..#amelia-earhart-started-flying-in-her-20s-9">Amelia Earhart</a> was my idol. I wanted to become a pilot, just like her. </p><p>When I had to get glasses in the fifth grade, I knew I had to find something else to aspire to because at the time, you had to have 20/20 vision to be able to fly.</p><p>So, since I couldn't be a pilot, and wasn't interested in the idea of becoming a mechanic, I became excited at the idea of <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/becoming-air-traffic-controller-career-pros-cons-of-job-2022-1">becoming an air traffic controller</a>.</p><p>But I grew up in the '80s, times were different. I was told that I couldn't direct planes because I was female. So I had to reroute my life plan, again. </p><p>When they announced that they were going to send a <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/big-bird-challenger-disaster-connection-2016-1">teacher to the moon</a> for the Challenger mission, I thought that was really cool. It showed me that anyone could go to space. </p><p>Of course, it turned out to <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-challenger-space-shuttle-explosion-anniversary-2020-1">be an awful tragedy</a>, but it was my first experience of really being able to learn about space. </p><p>I didn't really know where to go from there, and I ended up taking some pre-medicine classes at our community college. After about a year, I decided to leave that behind to get married and start a family. I thought being a mom was all I was destined to do. </p><h2><div type="image" title="James Webb telescope" height="2000" width="2666" msid="103534065" hostid="261"></div>I find the work fascinating and it's inspired me to go back to school</h2><p>Eventually, when my three boys were older, I went back to work. Thirteen years ago, I landed a job in the grants department at Space Telescope Science Institute. </p><p>They support the daily activities of NASA's different space missions, including the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-hubble-photo-shows-fluffy-galaxy-with-empty-center-2020-7?_ga=2.216826322.518359647.1694113851-1661638895.1688068242&amp;_gl=1*1blhk6i*_ga*MTY2MTYzODg5NS4xNjg4MDY4MjQy*_ga_E21CV80ZCZ*MTY5NDE5Njc0MC4xNTAuMS4xNjk0MTk3MjM1LjU1LjAuMA..">Hubble Space Telescope</a>, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nancy-grace-roman-biography-wfirst-space-telescope-observatory-name-2020-5">Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope</a>, and <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/james-webb-telescope-game-changing-discoveries-first-year-2023-7" target="_blank" rel="noopener">James Webb Space Telescope</a>. </p><p>I eventually moved from the grants department into my current role as mission planner. When I was put on the James Webb project in 2016, I didn't know a thing about the telescope. But I was quickly educated.</p><p>The more I learned, the more I loved what I was doing.</p><p>Now, I work with another mission planner to schedule the normal activities that happen on each pass of the telescope. To do this job, you need to be detail-oriented and very organized, there is very little that is done on the fly for these missions. </p><p>I have to know when the telescope will align with <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-loses-contact-voyager-2-sent-wrong-command-mistake-space-2023-8">the Deep Space Network</a>, which receives information from the craft, each day. The planning we do ensures people can get the data and photographs they need from up in space. </p><h2><div type="image" title="nebula in space with a pink bubble center and a textured orange ring surrounding it with wavy blue hazy lines and faint concentric arcs expanding out into space" height="942" width="1257" msid="103534066" hostid="261"></div></h2><p>Some people might say that the daily work I do is a little boring, but I still find it fascinating.</p><p>It's inspired me to go <a href="https://www.insider.com/im-single-mom-of-two-graduated-from-university-of-virginia-2023-3">back to school part-time</a>, taking systems engineering courses. I'll be getting my degree in the Spring of 2025.</p><h2>I can do anything I want to</h2><p>I may not be an astronomer or a scientist, but I am an organized person who does well under pressure, and I love that I get to play a role in the important discoveries that the telescope makes.</p><p>Through working on JWST, I began to realize that I can do anything I want to, it doesn't matter if I'm a female.</p><h2><div type="image" title="nasa deep space network antenna" height="1280" width="1706" msid="103534067" hostid="261"></div></h2><p>Even though I didn't have <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/undergrads-enrollment-petroleum-engineering-drops-despite-high-salary-2023-8">an engineering degree</a>, I was a part of the team that worked to get this <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GwjrWYU4I-4" target="_blank" rel="noopener">important scientific instrument</a> operating in space.</p><p>There are so many different teams, with people from different backgrounds, and in different roles, that work together to make a space project happen. It's not just one person doing anything here, it's a whole team working towards one objective: a successful mission. </p><p>I consider myself pretty lucky.</p><p>Not a lot of stay-at-home moms get a chance to <a href="https://www.insider.com/10-days-of-vacation-for-working-parents-is-not-enough-2023-4">revive their careers</a>. My kids are very supportive and encouraging of my choice to go back to school and work. They still encourage me to this day, even though they're all grown up. </p><div type="image" title="An illustration of the James Webb Space Telescope in space." height="407" width="815" msid="104863543" hostid="261" sizebytes="34584"></div><h2>The only way the mission works</h2><p>I have no plans to stop anytime soon. I love what I do, I love this mission. </p><p>It's amazing to me that I was told I couldn't be what I wanted to be when I grew up because of my gender, and now I can work in the space industry and be seen as an equal.</p><p>I work with so many other females who are respected, and some of my favorite space educators are women too. </p><p>I think that's one of the reasons I feel so fortunate, to have a team that accepts, encourages, and respects me and the unique attributes I bring to the table. That's the only way the mission works.</p><p><em>This story was originally published on September 9, 2023. It has been updated. </em></p>

I meticulously schedule the world's most powerful space telescope, the James Webb, so we can capture the cosmos in ways we've never seen before

<ul class="summary-list"><li><keyword id="11897862" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="elon-musk" source="Orion">Elon Musk</keyword>'s <keyword id="11895441" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="space" source="Orion">Space</keyword>X will <keyword id="6356110" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="launch" source="Orion">launch</keyword> the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope in 2026 under a new <keyword id="6360409" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="nasa" source="Orion">NASA</keyword> <keyword id="11975979" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="contract" source="Orion">contract</keyword>.</li><li>The telescope will study dark energy, dark matter, galaxies, and exoplanets, NASA said.</li></ul><p>NASA on Tuesday awarded Elon Musk's <keyword id="11908743" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="spacex" source="Orion">SpaceX</keyword> with a contract to provide launch services for the next space telescope mission.</p><p>The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, which is 2.4 meters in diameter, is slated to launch in October 2026, the space agency said in a <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-awards-launch-services-contract-for-roman-space-telescope">press release</a>. Under the contract, SpaceX will launch the telescope on a Falcon Heavy <keyword id="11945699" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="rocket" source="Orion">rocket</keyword> from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.</p><p>The cost for the mission's launch is expected to be around $255 million, including launch services and extra related charges, NASA said.</p><p>The Roman telescope mission comes after the $10 billion <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-launches-james-webb-space-telescope-2021-12">James Webb Telescope</a> was launched into the skies in December to search for early galaxies and habitable planets. The 6.5 meter Webb telescope has already captured <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-james-webb-hidden-details-infrared-galaxies-2022-7">colorful images</a> of ancient galaxies and new stars after taking two weeks to unfold by itself in space.</p><p>Nearly five years later, the Roman telescope will be sent into space to study dark energy, dark matter, galaxies, and exoplanets, which orbit a star outside of the solar system, according to <a href="https://roman.gsfc.nasa.gov/about.html">NASA</a>. This will help scientists to grasp the unanswered questions in cosmology, per the agency.</p><p>NASA said the telescope is expected to last in space for five years and the mission could be extended for five years.</p><p>The telescope was previously called the Wide Field InfraRed Survey Telescope but it was renamed after Dr. Nancy Grace Roman for her work at NASA, the agency said.</p><p>According to NASA, the Roman telescope will launch on a Falcon Heavy rocket, which SpaceX <a href="https://www.spacex.com/vehicles/falcon-heavy/">bills</a> as "the world's most powerful rocket." The vehicle, which first <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-successfully-launched-falcon-heavy-rocket-2018-2">flew into the skies in 2018</a>, has three reusable boosters and can lift almost 64 metric tons into orbit, per SpaceX's website.</p><p>SpaceX didn't respond to Insider's request for comment about the NASA contract.</p>

NASA awards SpaceX a $255 million contract to launch the next space telescope, which will study dark energy and exoplanets

<ul class="summary-list"><li>A spiral <keyword id="55852" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Galaxy">galaxy</keyword> nicknamed "Eye of the Serpent" is 35 million light-years from Earth.</li><li>The <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/hubble-space-telescope" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Hubble Space Telescope</a> recently snapped a photo of the galaxy, which is about half the width of the Milky Way and has a supermassive black hole at its center.</li></ul><p>Thirty-five million light-years away sits a mammoth spiral galaxy.</p><p>Its distinct arms, where stars and gas are compressed, create the illusion of an eye — which is why astronomers call it the "Eye of the Serpent."</p><p>The <keyword id="145693" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="Hubble-Space-Telescope">Hubble Space Telescope</keyword> recently snapped a photo of the galaxy, officially named NGC 2835; NASA and the European <keyword id="41531" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="space">Space</keyword> Agency (ESA) <a href="https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/potw2037a/">released the image this week</a>.</p><p>The Eye of the Serpent is located near the Hydra constellation, the largest constellation in our view of the night sky. Although it's too dim to be seen with the naked eye, it can be spotted using any telescope with an aperture <a href="https://theskylive.com/sky/deepsky/ngc2835-object">6 inches or wider</a>.</p><p>The galaxy is a little more than half as wide as our own Milky Way, which is also spiral galaxy. At its heart is a supermassive black hole with a mass millions of times greater than the sun.</p><p>The flecks of bright blue in the <keyword id="92334" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="60" keywordseo="Hubble">Hubble</keyword> photograph reflect nearly ultraviolet light. Such light indicates <a href="https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/potw2037a/">recent or ongoing star formation</a> inside the galaxy.</p><p>NASA launched Hubble into Earth's orbit in April 1990 to discover new planets, reveal <keyword id="92335" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="60" keywordseo="galaxies">galaxies</keyword>, and provide new insights into the nature of black holes.</p><div type="image" title="hubble telescope in space" height="755" width="1006" msid="78173558" hostid="261"></div><p>In the coming decade, NASA plans to launch <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-hubble-photo-shows-fluffy-galaxy-with-empty-center-2020-7">two other space telescopes</a> — named after NASA pioneers James Webb and Nancy Grace Roman — that can image more of our universe in even greater detail.</p><h2>The 'Eye of the Serpent' isn't the only galaxy Hubble spotted lately</h2><p>In July, NASA released a Hubble photograph of <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-hubble-photo-shows-fluffy-galaxy-with-empty-center-2020-7">another distant galaxy</a>. That galaxy, called NGC 2775, is about twice as far from Earth as "Eye of the Serpent" — 67 million light-years away.</p><p>NGC 2775 doesn't seem to be forming stars anymore. Astronomers can tell that's the case because of the relatively empty, clear bulge at the galaxy's center.</p><div type="image" title="hubble spiral galaxy feathered" height="1536" width="2048" msid="78173561" hostid="261"></div><p>The arms spinning around this galaxy's center are "flocculent" — meaning fluffy and feathery-looking — due to dark lines of dust and puffs of gas clouds.</p><p>Millions of young stars shine bright blue through the haze.</p><p><em>Morgan McFall-Johnsen contributed reporting.</em></p>

The Hubble telescope captured a stunning photo of the distant spiral galaxy named 'Eye of the Serpent'

<ul class="summary-list"><li><keyword id="6360409" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="Nasa">NASA</keyword>'s <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/see-what-photo-the-hubble-telescope-took-on-your-birthday-2020-4">Hubble Space Telescope</a> recently photographed a fluffy-looking <keyword id="55852" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Galaxy">galaxy</keyword> 67 million light-years away.</li><li>The galaxy's center is quiet, since early star formation used up all its gas long ago.</li><li>Two upcoming NASA <keyword id="62018" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Telescopes">telescopes</keyword> will succeed <keyword id="92334" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="60" keywordseo="Hubble">Hubble</keyword> and capture <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-photo-milky-way-galaxy-center-detail-2019-10">our own galaxy</a> and the universe beyond in unprecedented detail.</li></ul><p>NASA's most powerful space telescope, Hubble, captured a uniquely picturesque galaxy in a photo the agency released on Thursday.</p><p>The galaxy, called NGC 2775, is located 67 million light-years away and doesn't seem to be forming stars that much anymore. Astronomers can tell that's the case because of the relatively empty, clear bulge at the galaxy's center. When it was younger, the galaxy's middle region was likely bursting with activity as gas condensed into newborn stars. Now, however, all the gas seems to be used up.</p><p>The arms spinning around the galaxy's center are "flocculent" — fluffy and feathery-looking — due to dark lines of dust and puffs of gas clouds. Millions of young stars shine bright blue through the haze.</p><p>By contrast, other spiral galaxies — including the Milky Way — have more distinct arms where stars and gas are compressed.</p><p><div type="image" title="milky way spiral" height="1440" width="1920" msid="76824119" hostid="261"></div></p><h2>Hubble is NASA's strongest telescope — but not for long</h2><p>NASA launched Hubble into Earth's orbit in April 1990. Since then, the telescope has discovered new planets, revealed strange galaxies, and provided new insights into the nature of black holes. It also found that <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/universe-expansion-crisis-cosmology-new-physics-hubble-constant-2019-10">the universe is expanding more quickly than scientists imagined</a>.</p><p><div type="image" title="hubble telescope in space" height="755" width="1006" msid="76824122" hostid="261"></div></p><p>Upcoming space telescopes could return photos even more striking than Hubble's.</p><p>NASA's next such project, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), will use more advanced infrared cameras than any past telescope to image our galaxy. </p><p>"Even one image from Webb will be the highest-quality image ever obtained of the galactic center," Roeland van der Marel, an astronomer who worked on JWST's imaging tools, said in a 2019 <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2019/milky-way-s-center-will-be-revealed-by-nasa-s-webb-telescope">press release</a>.</p><p><div type="image" title="james webb space telescope" height="2048" width="2048" msid="76824124" hostid="261"></div></p><p>Such images could help answer some of scientists' biggest questions about how our galaxy formed and how it evolves over time.</p><p>The upcoming telescope is fully assembled and now faces a long testing process in Northrop Grumman's California facilities before its launch date on March 30, 2021.</p><p>Additionally, the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope — named for <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nancy-grace-roman-biography-wfirst-space-telescope-observatory-name-2020-5">the woman who made Hubble's launch possible</a> — will have 100 times the view of Hubble. After it launches in the mid-2020s, it's expected to photograph thousands of new exoplanets and probe the nature of dark energy, a mysterious force that makes up 68% of the universe and <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/universe-expansion-crisis-cosmology-new-physics-hubble-constant-2019-10">drives its expansion</a>.</p><p><div type="image" title="wfirst view vs hubble telescope" height="497" width="910" msid="76824126" hostid="261"></div></p><p>Over the Roman Space Telescope's five-year lifetime, it will measure light from a billion galaxies and survey the inner Milky Way with the hope of finding about 2,600 new planets and photographing them. It will also help scientists test Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity.</p>

NASA's powerful Hubble space telescope has beamed back a striking photo of a 'fluffy' galaxy with a ghostly, empty center

<ul><li><keyword id="49623" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="astronomers" source="Orion">Astronomers</keyword> find the most distant object ever seen from earth, named <keyword id="13565594" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="hd1" source="Orion">HD1</keyword>.</li><li>According to the study, this object could be a superpowered starburst <keyword id="55852" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="galaxy" source="Orion">galaxy</keyword> or a massive black hole.</li><li>Spitzer and Subaru telescopes were being used to discover HD1.<br /></li></ul>Astronomers might have discovered the most distant astronomical object ever observed. Named HD1, it is estimated to be 13.5 billion light-years away and is extremely bright, suggesting high energy processes taking place. HD1 was discovered after 1,200 hours of observing 700,000 objects. The four powerful ground and space-based telescopes including Japan's Subaru and NASA's Spitzer were used to discover HD1.<br /><br />According to <a href="https://www.cnet.com/science/space/this-galaxy-might-be-the-most-distant-cosmic-object-ever-found/">Cnet</a>, astronomers say the object could be a galaxy. The galaxy appears to be extremely bright in UV, which is believed to either be a “superpowered starburst galaxy” as it’s producing 10 times more stars than a traditional starburst galaxy. These are said to be some of the earliest stars as they shine brighter than others. Or it can be a huge black hole sucking in gas and dust, which also creates extremely bright light. If that’s true the right theory, it could be the earliest supermassive black hole ever discovered.<br /><br />Fabio Pacucci, an astronomer at the Center for Astrophysics said, If we assume HD1 is one of the first stars or Population III (luminous and hot stars with virtually no metals) stars, then its properties could be explained more easily. Fabio Pacucci’s team observed HD1 using ALMA in Chile.<br /><br />What we know so far is based on observation and theories. There’s no solid evidence of what this object truly is and to find that out, NASA will help with the most advanced - <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/science/space/news/the-james-webb-space-telescope-its-designed-to-search-the-first-galaxies-formed-after-big-bang/slidelist/86670502.cms">James Webb Space Telescope</a> - alongside the Nancy Grace Roman <keyword id="81842" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="telescope" source="Orion">Telescope</keyword>. These will help astronomers to calculate the distance and explain the nature of HD1.<br /><br />Recently found HD1, the most distant galaxy object was observed by ALMA. Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) is an astronomical interferometer of 66 radio telescopes in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile. The facility is established in collaboration with several countries and organisations including the European Southern Observatory, the National Science Foundation (US), and the National Institutes of Natural Sciences (Japan) in partnership with the Republic of Chile. The ALMA is used to observe light from space in millimetric and submillimetric wavelengths. <br /><br /><strong>SEE ALSO:</strong><br /><a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/gadgets/news/remedy-and-rockstar-games-join-hands-to-remake-max-payne-1-and-2/articleshow/90699373.cms">Remedy and Rockstar Games join hands to remake Max Payne 1 and 2</a><br /><a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/apps/news/google-play-to-block-downloads-for-outdated-apps-starting-november-1/articleshow/90699618.cms">Google Play to block downloads for outdated apps starting November 1</a><br />

Astronomers may have just found the most distant astronomical object ever observed

<ul class="summary-list"><li>For decades, astronomers have puzzled over <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/a-3d-map-of-the-universe-will-unlock-the-mystery-of-dark-energy-2016-7">dark energy</a> and why it's pushing our universe apart.</li><li>New data from the largest 3-D map of our universe suggests we may be wrong about dark energy.</li></ul><p>Scientists have constructed the largest <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/a-3d-map-of-the-universe-will-unlock-the-mystery-of-dark-energy-2016-7">3-D map of our universe</a> to date, and it's come with a couple of interesting surprises.</p><p>"So far, we're seeing basic agreement with our best model of the universe, but we're also seeing some potentially interesting differences," Michael Levi said in a statement released by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory on Thursday.</p><p>Levi is the director for the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/robots-will-help-us-learn-more-about-dark-energy-and-how-the-universe-formed-2016-8">Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument</a>, DESI, which produced the new map. The instrument consists of 5,000 tiny robots attached to a telescope in Arizona that collects light from various stages of our universe.</p><div type="image" title="Illustration of a telescope looking back in time to the early stages of the universe." height="456" width="810" msid="109077839" hostid="261" sizebytes="47988"></div><p>Astronomers use DESI to look back in time, billions of years ago, to understand how our <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/universe-expansion-crisis-cosmology-new-physics-hubble-constant-2019-10">universe has changed and evolved</a>. One of the driving forces behind that evolution is also one of our age's biggest mysteries in physics: dark energy.</p><p>Dark energy is the name astronomers have given to the unknown force that is driving our <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/universe-younger-expanding-faster-than-thought-study-new-physics-2019-4">universe to expand faster and faster</a> over time. But since its discovery in 1998, dark energy has eluded scientists, who know little about what it is or why it behaves the way it does.</p><p>DESI's detailed map could change that. It suggests that dark energy may be completely different than scientists thought, shaking a foundational pillar of our understanding of the universe.</p><h2>Dark energy may not be Einstein's constant after all</h2><div type="image" title="Millions of galaxies appear as web-like structures" height="685" width="1025" msid="109077842" hostid="261" sizebytes="95268"></div><p>Dark energy, as we understand it right now, is terrifying to think about because it means our universe is expanding faster and faster until one day <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-and-when-our-universe-will-end-2017-8">galaxies will be moving away</a> from us so quickly that their points of light in our night sky will wink out of existence.</p><p>That's the future we're headed for if dark energy continues at the rate it's going. And until Thursday, that's what many astronomers thought: that dark energy was a constant, unchanging force.</p><p>That's why astronomers have thought that dark energy could be the same thing as Albert Einstein's "cosmological constant," which was an extension of his theory of general relativity. Einstein abandoned the idea as his "<a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/einstein-biggest-blunder-cosmological-constant-expansion-universe-2017-5">greatest blunder</a>" in the 1930s, as astrophysicist Ethan Siegal <a target="_blank" href="https://bigthink.com/starts-with-a-bang/ask-ethan-is-einsteins-cosmological-constant-the-same-as-dark-energy/">explains</a>, but a constant dark energy would have vindicated him.</p><p>However, this mysterious force may not be so constant, after all.</p><div type="image" title="Photo of Albert Einstein on his porch at home in Princeton, New Jersey." height="691" width="662" msid="109077843" hostid="261" sizebytes="26088"></div><p>Preliminary estimates from DESI's new data suggest dark energy may be evolving and weakening. That's the new revelation scientists announced at a meeting of the American Physical Society this week.</p><p>"If true, it would be the first real clue we have gotten about the nature of dark energy in 25 years," Adam Riess, a Nobel laureate for his co-discovery of dark energy, told Quanta Magazine.</p><p>For now, this is just a hint. The data is not strong enough to be sure or to claim a discovery, Quanta reported. But the hint is enticing.</p><p>"The idea that dark energy is varying is very natural," Paul Steinhardt, a Princeton University cosmologist, told the magazine. If it were constant, "it would be the only form of energy we know which is absolutely constant in space and time."</p><p>If later data confirms these early hints of inconstant dark energy to be true, that would change what we know about the makeup and future of the universe. It would also bring scientists closer to solving the mystery of the universe's accelerating expansion.</p><div type="image" title="diagram of the history of the universe" height="1151" width="2048" msid="109077844" hostid="261" sizebytes="89902"></div><p>"If this holds up, it could light the way to a new, potentially deeper <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/the-big-ring-cosmic-discovery-could-rewrite-understanding-of-universe-2024-1">understanding of the universe</a>," Riess said. "The next few years should be very revealing."</p><h2>The 'golden era of cosmology'</h2><p>DESI measured the most distant part of the universe, 8-11 billion years ago, with record precision.</p><p>Other major universe-mapping observatories are hitting the skies in the coming years. The Vera C. Rubin Observatory is about to get outfitted with <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/scientists-built-largest-digital-camera-lsst-for-asteroids-dark-matter-2024-4">the world's largest digital camera</a>, which will allow it to map the entire southern sky over a decade, including more than 20 billion galaxies.</p><div type="image" title="giant camera black segmented tube with lens inside on a white engineering mount in a cleanroom with a person in a white cleansuit standing at the bottom of the lens that rises about five feet above the person's head" height="1500" width="2250" msid="109077845" hostid="261" sizebytes="249196"></div><p>The <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/esa-euclid-space-telescope-images-horsehead-nebula-perseus-cluster-photos-2023-11">European Space Agency's Euclid telescope</a> is already in space, where its mission is to study dark energy. NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is expected to launch in 2027 and conduct its own inquiry on the issue.</p><p>For its part, DESI aims to map 37 million galaxies by the end of its survey.</p><p>"We are in the golden era of cosmology, with large-scale surveys ongoing and about to be started, and new techniques being developed to make the best use of these datasets," Arnaud de Mattia, a researcher with the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) and co-leader of the DESI team that interprets its cosmological data, said in the press release.</p><p>"We're all really motivated to see whether new data will confirm the features we saw in our first-year sample and build a better understanding of the dynamics of our universe," Mattia said.</p>

The largest map of the cosmos hints that dark energy is changing. It could prove Einstein wrong and upend a pillar of modern physics.

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/59e67d1dddd0634e008b4734-1876/lego-ideas-nasa-women-female-scientists-astronauts.jpg" alt="lego ideas nasa women female scientists astronauts" data-mce-source="Lego Ideas" /><p class="source"><span>Lego Ideas</span></p><p class="caption">Lego's "Women of NASA" mini-figurines, including Nancy Grace Roman, Margaret Hamilton, Sally Ride, and Mae Jemison.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><ul><li><strong>Lego's new "Women of NASA" toy set went on sale for $24.99 on November 1.</strong></li><li><strong>The product, which a female journalist pitched to Lego, features four famous women from the US space agency who are scientists, engineers, astronauts, and entrepreneurs.</strong></li><li><strong>"Women of NASA" follows a powerful trend of Lego selling toys that are more female-inclusive.</strong></li></ul><hr /><p><br />Lego's new "Women of NASA" set is now available, and the product has already risen to the top of <a href="https://www.amazon.com/LEGO-Ideas-Women-21312-Building/dp/B071W77MBJ/">Amazon's list of best-selling toys.</a></p><p>The set of 231 plastic pieces costs about $25 and went on sale Wednesday morning. Its instant popularity is not surprising to those who have been following Lego's laudable - and presumably profitable - trend of selling toys that are <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/legos-newest-characters-are-incredibly-important-for-young-girls-2015-6">more inclusive</a> of women.</p><p>"Women of NASA" features four mini figurines of pioneering women from the space agency: the astronauts <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/sally-ride-first-gay-astronaut-nasa-2015-10">Sally Ride</a> and <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/can-you-go-on-the-100-year-starship-with-mae-jemison-2016-4">Mae Jemison</a>, the astronomer Nancy Grace Roman, and the computer scientist Margaret Hamilton.</p><p>Each figurine comes with her own backdrop of relevant NASA work, including a mini-space shuttle Challenger for the astronauts and a mini-Hubble Space Telescope.<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/59e67bfa9099241e008b4714-2000/lego-ideas-nasa-women-female-scientists-astronauts-kit-assembled.jpg" alt="lego ideas nasa women female scientists astronauts kit assembled" data-mce-source="Lego Ideas" /><p class="source"><span>Lego Ideas</span></p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>The toy set has a grassroots origin story. <a href="https://twitter.com/20tauri" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Maia Weinstock</a>, a deputy editor at MIT News, submitted <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/new-lego-set-recognizes-nasas-female-scientists-2016-8">her idea for the product</a> to <a href="https://ideas.lego.com/howitworks" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Lego's Ideas community</a> in July 2016. Members on that site create and vote on other users' plans; if Lego picks the idea, creators get a 1% cut of sales and licensing revenue.</p><p>Weinstock's <a href="https://ideas.lego.com/projects/388ddbe3-2f0a-42fb-9f54-93bf3b5f4fe9">submission</a> received more than 10,000 public votes - which led Lego to ultimately refine, manufacture, and sell the "Women of NASA" set. (<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-apollo-moon-rocket-legos-2017-4">Lego's giant Saturn V moon rocket set</a>, released in June, came about the same way.)</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/59e67d729099241e008b4731-1106/lego-ideas-nasa-women-female-scientists-astronauts-submitter.jpg" alt="lego ideas nasa women female scientists astronauts submitter" data-mce-source="Lego Ideas" /><p class="source"><span>Lego Ideas</span></p><p class="caption">Margaret Hamilton, Lego designer Tara Wike, and <keyword id="41551" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="100" keywordseo="science">science</keyword> journalist Maia Weinstock hold up the "Women of NASA" kit.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>One figurine is missing from Weinstock's original kit proposal, though: Katherine Johnson, a mathematician at NASA whose remarkable story of working on the Mercury and Apollo programs was the focus of the film "<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/hidden-figures-oscars-nasa-2017-2">Hidden Figures</a>."</p><p>"In order for us to move forward with a partner we need to obtain approval from all key people, which was not possible in this case. We naturally fully respect this decision," a Lego representative <a href="https://gizmodo.com/lego-forced-to-exclude-hidden-figures-heroine-from-cool-1819629642" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">told Gizmodo</a> in an Oct. 25 story.</p><p>You can take a close-up look at the "Women of NASA" set, who it features, and what it includes in <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/lego-women-nasa-scientists-astronauts-kit-2017-10">our preview of the product</a>.</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/new-lego-headquarters-office-playground-design-denmark-2016-9">Lego's headquarters is about to get a huge renovation, and it looks amazing</a></h3>        <div>            <iframe class="bijwplayerclass" data-player="jwplayer" src="https://content.jwplatform.com/players/zWOKTJeS-CEZHWCBG.html" width="100%" height="100%" frameborder="0" scrolling="auto" style="margin:0px;" allowfullscreen=""></iframe><script>function receiveMessage(event){ console.log(event.data.fullscreen); Android.fullscreen(event.data.fullscreen); }window.addEventListener("message", receiveMessage, false);</script>        </div>    </div>

Lego's all-female 'Women of NASA' toy set is already selling like crazy

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/59e67c94909924d2008b46f2-1769/lego-ideas-nasa-women-female-scientists-astronauts-13.jpg" alt="lego ideas nasa women female scientists astronauts 13" data-mce-source="Lego Ideas" /><p class="source"><span>Lego Ideas</span></p></div><p></p></div></div>Lego announced on Wednesday that it's releasing a "Women of NASA" set.</p><p>The $24.99 kit goes on sale November 1 - just in time for the holiday gift-giving season - and builds on a laudable trend of selling toys that are <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/legos-newest-characters-are-incredibly-important-for-young-girls-2015-6">more inclusive</a> of women.</p><p>"Women of NASA" features four minifigurines of pioneering women from the space agency: astronauts <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/sally-ride-first-gay-astronaut-nasa-2015-10">Sally Ride</a> and <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/can-you-go-on-the-100-year-starship-with-mae-jemison-2016-4">Mae Jemison</a>, astronomer Nancy Grace Roman, and computer scientist Margaret Hamilton.</p><p>Each minifig will also come with a special backdrop related to their historic work at NASA, including the space shuttle Challenger and the Hubble Space Telescope.</p><p><a href="https://twitter.com/20tauri" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Maia Weinstock</a>, a deputy editor at MIT News, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/new-lego-set-recognizes-nasas-female-scientists-2016-8">submitted her idea for the kit</a> in July 2016 to the company's to the <a href="https://ideas.lego.com/howitworks" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Lego Ideas community</a>, where members create and vote on new set plans. If and when Lego picks an idea from the site, submitters get a 1% cut of sales and licensing revenue.</p><p>Weinstock's <a href="https://ideas.lego.com/projects/388ddbe3-2f0a-42fb-9f54-93bf3b5f4fe9">submission</a> got more than 10,000 votes, triggering an automatic review by Lego staff - and they decided to manufacture and sell it. (<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-apollo-moon-rocket-legos-2017-4">Lego's giant Saturn V moon rocket set</a>, released in June, came about the same way.)</p><p>Here's a close-up look at the kit and what it includes.</p>

You Searched For "nancy grace roman space telescope" and got 10 results

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NASA's powerful new space telescope will be named after Nancy Grace Roman — the agency's first female executive, known as the 'mother of Hubble'

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The Hubble telescope captured a stunning photo of the distant spiral galaxy named 'Eye of the Serpent'

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NASA's powerful Hubble space telescope has beamed back a striking photo of a 'fluffy' galaxy with a ghostly, empty center

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Astronomers may have just found the most distant astronomical object ever observed

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The largest map of the cosmos hints that dark energy is changing. It could prove Einstein wrong and upend a pillar of modern physics.

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Lego's all-female 'Women of NASA' toy set is already selling like crazy

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Lego is selling a 'Women of NASA' set featuring 4 female scientists, engineers, and astronauts

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