NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is preparing for launch with technology designed to directly image distant exoplanets that are much fainter than their host stars.

Its Coronagraph Instrument will block out starlight, allowing scientists to study planets that would normally be hidden by the intense glare of their stars.

The telescope is expected to directly image older, cooler gas-giant planets closer to their stars than previous instruments have been able to observe and analyze their atmospheres.

Roman is scheduled to launch on August 30 aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy and will also investigate dark energy, dark matter and the evolution of the universe, Phys.org has reported.

Scientists hope the technology tested by Roman will eventually help future telescopes directly image smaller, Earth-like planets and search for signs that they could support life.