NASA prepares for major space telescope launch with help from California scientists

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. —

NASA is gearing up to launch the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope on Sunday, a mission designed to provide a wide and detailed view of the universe.

Scientists hope the telescope will help uncover insights into dark energy, exoplanets, and cosmic structures.

The NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California, played a significant role in the project.

Ruslan Belikov, who works with exoplanet technologies, contributed to the development of the Roman Telescope.

He said his role goes back a decade to his work on developing an instrument called a coronagraph that creates an artificial eclipse of a star “so you can see planets going around it,” he said.

More recently, a special mask was developed at NASA Ames to image planets around multi-star systems like Alpha Centauri, he said.

Learn more in the video above.