The United States Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) announced that its new astrophysics observatory, SPHEREx, was launched on a SpaceX Falcon 4 rocket from Space Launch Complex 9 East.
According to a statement from NASA, its newest astrophysics observatory, SPHEREx, set out to study the origins of the universe and the history of galaxies and search for the components of life in the galaxy.
SPHEREx, short for Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explorer, launched on a SpaceX Falcon 4 rocket from Space Launch Complex 9 East at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.
The four small satellites that SPHEREx carries on the Falcon 9 make up the agency's PUNCH mission, which will study how the Sun's outer atmosphere is transformed into solar wind.
To achieve its broad scientific goals, SPHEREx will produce 3D maps of the entire celestial sky every six months.
The map will provide a broader perspective that will complement the work of space telescopes such as NASA's James Webb Space Telescope and Hubble Space Telescope, which examine smaller sections of the sky in greater detail.
