Nasa unveiled a new telescope on Tuesday to scan vast swathes of the universe for planets outside our solar system and probe the mysteries of dark matter and dark energy.

The Roman space telescope is expected to discover tens of thousands of planets, possibly offering clarity about how many could be out there.

“Roman will give the Earth a new atlas of the universe,” Nasa administrator Jared Isaacman told a news conference at the Goddard Space Flight Centre in Maryland, where the telescope went on display.

The 12-metre (39-feet), silvery contraption with massive solar panels will be transported to Florida ahead of a launch into space aboard a SpaceX rocket planned for September at the earliest.

Roman, which took more than $4 billion and over a decade to build, is named after astronomer Nancy Grace Roman, nicknamed the “Mother of Hubble” for her role in developing the landmark space telescope.

Thirty-six years after Hubble launched into space, revolutionising astronomical observations, Nasa hopes Roman will help to shed light on questions that remain unresolved.

Boasting a field of view at least 100 times larger than Hubble’s, the telescope will sweep across vast regions of space from its position 1.5 million kilometres (930,000 miles) from Earth.

The telescope will send 11 terabytes of data a day down to Earth, said Mark Melton, a systems engineer at Goddard Space Flight Centre.

“In the first year, we’ll have sent down more data than Hubble will have for its entire life,” he told AFP.

The telescope’s wide-angle lens will allow Nasa to conduct a census of the objects that make up our universe, said Nicky Fox, associate administrator for Nasa’s Science Mission Directorate.

“Roman will discover tens of thousands of new planets outside our solar system. It will reveal billions of galaxies, thousands of supernovae and tens of billions of stars,” she said.

This wealth of information will enable Nasa to tease out areas of interest that can then be investigated by complementary telescopes, such as the James Webb Space Telescope.

Study the invisible

But Roman will also study the invisible — dark matter and dark energy, whose origins remain unknown but which are thought to constitute 95% of our universe.

Dark matter is believed to be the glue that holds galaxies together, while dark energy pulls them apart by making the universe expand faster and faster over time.

Thanks to its infrared vision, the telescope will be able to observe light emitted by celestial bodies billions of years ago, effectively looking back in time to hopefully discover more about the two phenomena.

Complementing the work of Europe’s Euclid space telescope and the Vera Rubin Observatory in Chile, Roman will probe “how the dark matter structures itself throughout cosmic time” and “calculate how fast galaxies are moving away from us,” Darryl Seligman, an assistant professor of physics and astronomy at Michigan State University, told AFP.

These discoveries could fundamentally change our understanding of the structure of our universe, said astrophysicist Julie McEnery, who led the Roman project.

“If Roman wins a Nobel Prize at some point, it’s probably for something we haven’t even thought about or questioned yet,” said Melton.

Actor Elsie Kelly, famed for her starring role as viewer favorite Noreen in ITV’s comedy Benidorm, breathed her last at age 89 on April 21, 2026.

Kelly’s passing was confirmed by her rep Michelle Skyes on Wednesday, April 22, 2026.

Skyes said, “She passed away peacefully, after a short illness, surrounded by her loving family on 21st April, 2026, at the age of 89.”

“With a career spanning decades across television, theatre, and film, she most recently became a household name through her work on Benidorm…

Soon after the news of Kelly’s passing, tributes have been pouring in as Benidorm director Derren Litten penned a heartfelt tribute.

“So sad to pass on the news of the passing of Elsie Kellu, aka Noreen, in Benidorm,” he wrote.

“One of the best loved characters in the show and certainly one of the most beloved cast members. Elsi’s acting abilities and comic genius were so natural they were almost taken for granted,” Litten added.

Kelly’s other credits include starring as the gossipy cleaner, Mrs. Tardebigge, in Crossroads.

She also features in the 1996 film Intimate Relations after taking a break from television.

However, she did shortly make a comeback to the small screen, playing in series such as Skins, as well as starring as Joan the cook in the 1996 adaptation of The Famous Five.

Jack Quaid and Claudia Doumit have gone from co-stars to newlyweds.

The couple — who met on the set of The Boys — have reportedly tied the knot in a private ceremony in Australia. According to Australian outlet news.com.au, the ceremony reportedly took place on April 18 at Mona Farm in Braidwood, a quiet countryside location not far from Canberra.

Their reception, held in a marquee on the property, was said to include a star-studded guest list, with names like Meg Ryan, Dennis Quaid, Alec Baldwin, Tom Hanks, Kevin Costner and Henry Golding in attendance.

While the event was kept low-key, glimpses from guests briefly surfaced online, showing the pair celebrating their first dance to Atlantis by Donovan, before the images were later removed.

Doumit wore an off-white satin gown with a ruffled skirt and floral headband, while Quaid opted for a bold red Western-style blazer with gold embroidery.

Several of their The Boys co-stars also showed up, including Karl Urban, Colby Minifie and Nathan Mitchell, marking a full-circle moment for the couple who first connected through the hit series. They were first linked in 2022 after being spotted holding hands, two years after Doumit joined the show.