NASA’s Roman to Use Rare Events to Calculate Expansion Rate of Universe

A field of galaxies on the black background of space. Some are blue and white, others glow yellow. In the middle of the field is a cluster of five yellowish spiral and elliptical galaxies that form a foreground galaxy cluster. There is one spiral galaxy just below the cluster that has a yellow-whiteish core and is surrounded by diffuse blue material. This galaxy is outlined by a white box, and lines extend from the box’s corners that leads to an enlarged view at the right. Four arrows point at yellow faint points of light that circle the central glow of the galaxy.

Astronomers investigating one of the most pressing mysteries of the cosmos – the rate at which the universe is expanding – are readying themselves to study this puzzle in a new way using NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope. Once it launches by May 2027, astronomers will mine Roman’s wide swaths of images for gravitationally … Continue reading NASA’s Roman to Use Rare Events to Calculate Expansion Rate of Universe

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