NASA’s next “great observatory” has begun its mission to widen our view of the Universe, according to Ars Technica.
The report emphasises the scale of the data the observatory is expected to produce. NASA pointed to the size of a single survey image as a measure of the mission’s breadth.
“We would need over half a million 4K TVs to fully display the single Roman image from our largest survey,” NASA said.
It is not yet clear from the available source what stage the mission has reached operationally, or what specific findings the surveys have produced.
Why it matters
Wide-field surveys can capture large areas of the sky at once, and NASA's description of the image scale points to a large volume of data for astronomers to study.
Frequently asked questions
What is NASA's new observatory designed to do?
According to Ars Technica, the observatory has begun a mission to widen our view of the Universe.
How large are the images from the observatory's surveys?
NASA said a single image from its largest survey would require over half a million 4K TVs to fully display.