NASA’s SPHEREx mission is set to launch on March 4, 2025, atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base, California.
The Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization, and Ices Explorer (SPHEREx) is an ambitious $488 million project designed to map the entire sky in 3D using infrared light. Its primary goal is to study over 450 million galaxies and 100 million stars within our Milky Way galaxy, providing unprecedented insights into the universe's formation and evolution.
One of the key areas SPHEREx will investigate is the formation of galaxies. By observing distant galaxies and the light emitted from them, SPHEREx will help answer important questions about how galaxies form, evolve, and interact.
The telescope will also look into the phenomenon known as cosmic inflation—an event that occurred just after the Big Bang, causing the universe to expand at an incredible rate. Understanding this process could help clarify how the universe as we know it came into existence.
In addition to its study of galaxies, SPHEREx will focus on the origins of essential molecules for life, such as water and complex organic compounds. It will search for these molecules in interstellar space, where they might have originated before being delivered to planets like Earth. This could provide critical information about the possibility of life elsewhere in the universe.
SPHEREx will employ a spectrophotometer to conduct a broad survey of the sky, capturing infrared light across a range of wavelengths. This will allow it to examine the cosmic “ice,” such as water and other molecules, that could have played a role in the emergence of life.
The telescope will also conduct an in-depth study of the “Epoch of Reionization,” a crucial period in the universe’s history when the first stars and galaxies formed and began to illuminate the cosmos.
This two-year mission will provide a wealth of data that will be accessible to scientists worldwide. The SPHEREx mission is not just about mapping the universe—it’s about understanding the building blocks of life and how our universe has evolved from its earliest moments. The knowledge gained from this mission will likely change the way we view our place in the cosmos and our understanding of life's potential elsewhere.