The game gives players a minute to “catch” as many space objects as possible. Old-school music sounds as galaxies, rogue exoplanets, and even black holes fly by. Players get points for capturing objects and can learn more about what they have captured once the minute has passed.
Fun and entertaining, the game was developed to teach players about cosmic objects and the telescope, which is scheduled to launch in the middle of the decade.
Named after NASA pioneering executive Nancy Roman, known as the “Mother of Hubble” to help the agency create the legendary Hubble Space Telescope, the new observatory will dramatically expand researchers’ ability to see and study the cosmos. Roman was a formidable astronomer, and the observatory that bears his name will investigate mysteries such as what causes the universe to expand and which planets exist beyond our solar system.
The Roman space telescope will be Hubble’s “wide-eyed cousin,” the agency says, capturing 100 times as much sky as the 1990 telescope with the help of massive 300-megapixel instrumentation.
The new observatory will capture wide-field images of space and a map and measure the universe using a variety of cutting-edge techniques.
Compared to the mission it promotes, the 8-bit game is really simple. But sometimes it just takes a little easy fun for people to get interested in science and get excited about an upcoming mission.