TIME Best Inventions of 2026

Award: TIME's Best Inventions is an annual recognition of the world's most groundbreaking innovations. Each year, TIME editors assemble a list of the products, software, and services shaping our world - from breakthroughs in science and technology to innovations making the world better, smarter, and more fun.

Awarded to: NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is a flagship mission that will explore mysteries of the dark universe and worlds outside our solar system, known as exoplanets, like never before. Roman pairs a large field of view with crisp infrared vision to rapidly explore vast swaths of the sky and probe deeply into cosmic history. Its surveys will generate massive amounts of data and support a broad range of research extending far beyond the mission's main science goals.

Roman launched Aug. 30 from the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Florida and is now on a three-month, million-mile journey to its final orbit. Along the way, Roman is undergoing a process called commissioning, where scientists run its instruments through a series of calibrations and tests to prepare for science operations. NASA anticipates releasing Roman's first images by early 2027.

Date: Oct. 15, 2026