NASA wants to unlock the universe's secrets with telescope more powerful than Hubble

article

WFIRST, Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope, is shown here in an artist's rendering. (NASA / Goddard Space Flight Center / Conceptual Image Lab)

NASA has unveiled plans for a powerful new telescope with a view more than 100 times wider than Hubble.

The Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST) is designed to help researchers unravel the secrets of dark energy and dark matter, and explore the evolution of the universe, according to NASA. “It also will discover new worlds outside our solar system and advance the search for worlds that could be suitable for life,” explained the space agency, in a statement released Thursday.

NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., is leading the WFIRST mission, with the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. managing the 7.8 foot telescope. The Jet Propulsion Lab will also deliver the cornograph, which helps image and characterize planets around stars.

"WFIRST has the potential to open our eyes to the wonders of the universe, much the same way Hubble has," said John Grunsfeld, astronaut and associate administrator of NASA's Science Mission Directorate at its headquarters in Washington. "This mission uniquely combines the ability to discover and characterize planets beyond our own solar system with the sensitivity and optics to look wide and deep into the universe in a quest to unravel the mysteries of dark energy and dark matter."