Telescope

• NASA engineers have successfully completed the final inspection of the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope's primary mirror, which passed all tests. • Following this final check, the telescope is now being prepared for shipment to its designated launch site in Florida. • This milestone ensures the telescope's optical systems are fully operational before it begins its mission to study dark energy and exoplanets.

• Engineers at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, have completed the final inspection of the primary mirror for the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope. • This critical phase ensures the telescope's optical components are precise and ready for deployment after the sunshade was successfully tested. • The Roman telescope is designed to provide wide-field infrared imaging to study dark energy, dark matter, and exoplanets.

• The James Webb Space Telescope has identified two pairs of "JuMBOs" (Jupiter-mass binary objects) within a star-forming region of the Milky Way. • These rogue, planet-sized objects exist without orbiting a parent star, challenging previous theories that such sightings were merely optical illusions. • This discovery is significant because it contradicts standard models of planet formation, which typically require a host star to create such bodies.

• NASA announced in December 2025 that construction of the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is complete, with a scheduled launch by May 2027 or potentially as early as fall 2026. • During its five-year primary mission, the observatory aims to discover approximately 100,000 new transiting planets and create the largest catalog of rogue worlds in history. • This mission is significant because it will drastically expand the known exoplanet population and provide unprecedented data on planets drifting without host stars.

• The James Webb Space Telescope has discovered an ancient black hole that appears to have formed before its host galaxy, challenging existing astronomical models. • These findings stem from observations of "Little Red Dot" galaxies, which are extremely distant and ancient objects in the early universe. • The discovery represents a "paradigm shift" for scientists, as it forces a total revisiting of classical scenarios regarding how black holes and galaxies co-evolve.

• Russian cosmonauts Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergei Mikaev conducted a 6-hour spacewalk outside the International Space Station on Wednesday, May 27, 2026. • The primary objective of the mission was to install the Solntse-Teragerts telescope and retrieve various science experiments. • This new telescope is designed to observe and collect critical data regarding powerful solar flares emanating from the sun.