SPHEREx Telescope

SPHEREx Telescope Latest News

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is tentatively scheduled to launch its new megaphone-shaped space telescope aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.

About SPHEREx Telescope

• The Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explorer (SPHEREx) telescope is a megaphone-shaped telescope.
• Tenure: 2 year

Aims of SPHEREx Telescope

• It will map the universe while detecting two kinds of cosmic light, optical and infrared.
• It will measure something called cosmic inflation. (It refers to a period which took place around 14 billion years ago, during which the universe expanded faster than the speed of light for a fraction of a second).
• It will help better understand things about the formation of the universe, the growth of all galaxies across cosmic history, and the location of water and life-forming molecules in the Milky Way galaxy.
• It will use spectroscopic images to measure the 3D positions of about 450 million galaxies across cosmic history.
• It will complement the work being done by other infrared telescopes in space, such as the James Webb Space Telescope and Hubble Space Telescope.

Significance of SPHEREx Telescope

• Mapping the whole sky enables astronomers to identify promising regions for life and gather large-scale data to separate meaningful patterns from anomalies, making this mission a transformative step in the search for life beyond Earth.
• We can determine the necessary conditions to form biogenic molecules in space. In turn, this can tell us about a crucial step in how life came to be.

SPHEREx Telescope FAQs

Q1. Who is launching SPHEREx?

Ans. SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket

Q2. What is SPHEREx NASA?

Ans. The Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explorer (SPHEREx) is a planned two-year mission that will survey the sky in optical as well as near-infrared light which, though not visible to the human eye, serves as a powerful tool for answering cosmic questions.

Source: TH