NASA is preparing to launch a new space telescope that promises to change the way we see the universe. The SPHEREx telescope will create the "most colourful" map of the cosmos ever made. Though it is small in size, its two-year mission is expected to provide a huge amount of information about space, the formation of galaxies, and the presence of life-forming molecules.

The mission is scheduled to launch on February 27, 2025, if everything goes as planned. Scientists believe that SPHEREx will help answer some of the biggest questions about how the universe came to be and why life exists within it.

How will SPHEREx help us understand the universe?

SPHEREx is a special telescope that will take detailed pictures of space using infrared light. These pictures, called spectroscopic images, will help scientists understand how the universe was created, study how galaxies have changed over time, and find out where water and important life-forming molecules exist in our galaxy. Everything in space gives off light in different colours, but our eyes can only see three main ones—green, blue, and red. SPHEREx, however, will break the light into 96 different colours, allowing scientists to study space objects in much greater detail.

This telescope will also help other space telescopes like the James Webb Space Telescope and the Hubble Space Telescope. Unlike these telescopes, which focus on small parts of the sky, SPHEREx will scan the entire sky. In just a few months, it will map out the whole sky, something that other telescopes would take many years to do.

What will SPHEREx study?

SPHEREx will study how the universe expanded quickly right after the Big Bang, a process called inflation. Scientists still do not fully understand how this happened, so learning more about it is an important goal in space research. Since inflation affected the entire universe, SPHEREx will scan the whole sky to study it properly. By taking special images, it will measure the positions of one billion galaxies over time. This will help scientists create a 3D map of the universe and understand its history better.

SPHEREx will not only study galaxies but also observe 100 million stars and 10,000 asteroids, giving scientists a complete view of space like never before. It will collect a huge amount of data, which experts will analyse using advanced math and statistics to test different ideas about how the universe expanded in its early days.

Scientists believe SPHEREx will make important discoveries and help us understand how everything in the universe, including life, came to exist. With this mission, NASA is making another big move toward solving the mysteries of space and the origins of life.

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