Mon Mar 03 11:02:50 UTC 2025: ## NASA’s SPHEREx Telescope Set to Launch, to Explore Early Universe and Search for Water
**Vandenberg Space Force Base, CA** – NASA is poised to launch its SPHEREx (Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization, and Ices Explorer) space telescope this Friday aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. This innovative, megaphone-shaped observatory will embark on a two-year mission to unravel mysteries surrounding the universe’s origins and search for water in the Milky Way galaxy.
SPHEREx will create a three-dimensional map of the cosmos using 102 colors, analyzing data from over 450 million galaxies and 100 million Milky Way stars. A key objective is to gain insights into cosmic inflation, the rapid expansion of the universe immediately following the Big Bang. By mapping galaxy distribution, scientists hope to better understand the physics driving this crucial early universe event.
“We have pretty good evidence that inflation occurred, but the physics driving that event is really uncertain,” explained SPHEREx project scientist Olivier Dore of Caltech and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. “By mapping the distribution of galaxies, we can directly constrain unique properties of inflation.”
Beyond the exploration of the early universe, SPHEREx will search for water ice on interstellar dust grains within our galaxy. These icy reservoirs are believed to be a significant source of the universe’s water. The telescope will also analyze other molecules like carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide.
Launching alongside SPHEREx is NASA’s PUNCH mission, a constellation of satellites designed to study the sun’s corona and solar wind. Scientists are optimistic about the discoveries SPHEREx will bring, expecting it to reveal new cosmic phenomena and provide an unprecedented dataset for future research. “I think the beauty of astronomy is that every time we look at the sky in a new way…we discover new phenomena,” Dore noted.
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