Signal Acquired: NASA’s SPHEREx Begins Science Mission

https://blogs.nasa.gov/spherex/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nn202510 NASA’s newest astrophysics observatory, SPHEREx, is on its way to study the origins of our universe and the history of galaxies. Short for Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explorer, SPHEREx lifted off at 11:10 p.m. EDT on Tuesday, March 11, aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 4 East at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. Riding with SPHEREx were four small satellites that make up the agency’s PUNCH (Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere) mission, which will study how the Sun’s outer atmosphere becomes the solar wind. To achieve its wide-ranging science goals, SPHEREx will create a 3D map of the entire celestial sky every six months, providing a wide perspective to complement the work of space telescopes that observe smaller sections of the sky in more detail, such as the James Webb Space Telescope and Hubble Space Telescope. 77 1 77