NASA发射南希·格雷斯·罗曼太空望远镜

♪ YESTERDAY, NASA LAUNCHED ITS NEWEST SPACE TELESCOPE, THE NANCY GRACE ROMAN, UNDERTAKING ITS BIGGEST MISSION YET -- TO STUDY THE UNIVERSE ON A MUCH LARGER SCALE. DURING A PRESS CONFERENCE WITH NASA ADMINISTRATOR JARED ISAACMAN, THE PROJECT'S LEADERS SPELLED OUT HOW THIS NEW TELESCOPE DIFFERED FROM ITS PREDECESSORS.

ROMAN IS GOING TO CHANGE THE WAY WE LOOK AT THE UNIVERSE. IT IS GOING TO DISCOVER MAY BE 100,000 NEW PLANETS AND WHEN YOU THINK THAT IN 1990 WHEN WE LAUNCHED HUBBLE WE DIDN'T EVEN KNOW THERE WERE EXOPLANETS, SO HOW FAR WE HAVE COME. WE KNOW THERE ARE 6000 NOW AND THERE WILL BE MAYBE 100,000 AT THE END OF ROMANS MISSION. AMNA: A ROUGHLY $4 BILLION PROJECT, THE ROMAN WILL ALLOW SCIENTISTS TO GET PANORAMIC VIEWS OF SPACE AND BETTER UNDERSTAND THE NATURE OF POWERFUL FORCES KNOWN AS DARK ENERGY AND DARK MATTER.

OUR SCIENCE CORRESPONDENT MILES O'BRIEN IS HERE TO HELP FILL IN THE PICTURE. DARK ENERGY AND DARK MATTER, YOU HAD ME AT BOTH. YOU HAD ME -- WE ALREADY HAD THE HUBBLE, WHAT DOES THIS ADD? MILES: YOU HAVE TO THINK ABOUT IT AS A FLEET. THE ROMAN IS THE SCALP, THE BIG AND POWERFUL WIDE LENS. IT HAS A MIRROR THAT IS THE SAME DIAMETER AS HUBBLE, BUT IT IS 100 TIMES MORE PRECISE AND WHEN YOU COMBINE THAT WITH THAT SPEED IT IS ABLE TO SURVEY THE UNIVERSE 1000 TIMES FASTER AND THAT IS WHERE YOU COME NO COOKIES HUGE NUMBERS WERE WE WILL LOOK OUT INTO THE COSMOS AND IDENTIFY THINGS WE HAVE ONLY SEEN A FRACTION OF HERE 24.

ONCE YOU HAVE THAT KIND OF DATA AND IT WILL COME DOWN AT ABOUT A TERABYTE AND HALF A DAY, IMAGINE THAT, THAT'S A LOT OF DATA, SCIENTISTS HOPE THEY BE ABLE TO FILL IN THIS MYSTERY. BASICALLY 95% OF THE UNIVERSE WE DON'T KNOW MUCH ABOUT, WE ARE IN THE DARK WITH DARK ENERGY AND DARK MATTER. AMNA: THOSE ARE TWO OF ITS BIGGEST TARGETS. PROFESSOR O'BRIEN, EXPLAIN WHAT THE DIFFERENCE IS. MILES: DARK MATTER IS LIKE THE INVISIBLE SCAFFOLDING THAT HOLDS THE UNIVERSE TOGETHER.

WE KNOW THAT THE WAY PLANETS REVOLVE AROUND EACH OTHER AND THE WAY THE UNIVERSE WORKS, THERE HAS TO BE SOME GRAVITATIONAL FORCE THERE THAT WE CALL DARK MATTER THAT HOLDS IT ALTOGETHER TOGETHER, THE GLUE. DARK ENERGY IS THIS MYSTERIOUS FORCE THAT CAUSES THE UNIVERSE TO EXPAND. TO THIS DAY ASTRONOMERS DON'T KNOW WHAT THEY ARE, BUT MAY BE ALL THIS DATA WE GET FROM ROMAN WILL LEAD ASTRONOMERS CLOSER TO SOME ANSWER. AMNA: BUT IF IT IS INVISIBLE, HOW DOES A TELESCOPE HELP US FIGURE OUT SOMETHING WE CAN'T SEE?

IT WILL LOOK AT THINGS LIKE THE WAY THE LIGHT IS BENT BY GRAVITY. IT IS SORT OF LIKE UNDERSTANDING A TREE BY LOOKING AT IT SHADOW. WE KNOW THE GRAVITY CAN BEND LIGHT, GRAVITATIONAL LENSING IT IS CALLED. THAT CAN GIVE US SOME INSIGHTS INTO THE FORCE OF THE GRAVITATIONAL PULL. AS FOR THE DARK ENERGY, NO ONE REALLY KNOWS WHAT IT IS THAT THEY ARE KIND OF JUST WONDERING WHAT THEY ARE GOING TO FIND AND THIS IS KIND OF THE BEAUTY OF SCIENCE.

THEY ARE GOING TO GO OUT THERE COME A POINT THIS POWERFUL INSTRUMENT AND YOU CAN BET THAT THEY WILL FIND SOME THINGS THAT