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Wed, March 12, 2025
Tue, March 11, 2025

NASA SPHEREx telescope is launched to study universe's origins


Published on 2025-03-11 23:42:26 - Reuters
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  • A NASA telescope was launched into space from California on Tuesday for a mission to explore the origins of the universe and to scour the Milky Way galaxy for hidden reservoirs of water, a key ingredient for life.

The NASA SPHEREx (Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explorer) telescope was successfully launched on January 1, 2023, from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. This mission aims to explore the origins of the universe by mapping the entire sky in infrared light, focusing on understanding the formation of galaxies, the distribution of water and ice in our galaxy, and the physics of the Big Bang. SPHEREx will provide insights into the early universe by studying the cosmic microwave background radiation and will help in identifying the distribution of water and other elements crucial for life. The telescope's observations are expected to last for two years, during which it will scan the sky multiple times to gather data on over 300 million galaxies and more than 100 million stars in the Milky Way.

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[ https://www.msn.com/en-us/science/astronomy/nasa-spherex-telescope-is-launched-to-study-universe-s-origins/ar-AA1AJnRV ]