Months after arriving in orbit thanks to a Falcon 9 rocket launch from Vandenberg Space Force Base, NASA’s newest space telescope has started collecting images of the universe. The craft known as SPHEREx — Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization, and Ices Explorer — shared a ride with another NASA mission for the trek on March 11.
NASA's SPHEREx mission aims to study the origins of the universe, the history of galaxies, and the presence of water and pre-biotic molecules in planetary systems. It will conduct an all-sky spectral survey to gather data on over 100 million stars and galaxies, providing insights into large-scale cosmic structures and the history of galaxy formation.