Produced by: Mohsin Shaikh
NASA’s SPHEREx mission will scan the cosmos for hidden ice, revealing how water—essential for life—forms and moves through space. Could this unlock the mystery of life’s origins?
Representative pic
Past missions found far less water vapor than expected. SPHEREx will track down massive ice reservoirs hiding in cosmic dust clouds, rewriting what we know about planet formation.
Representative pic
SPHEREx will create the largest-ever map of frozen water, carbon dioxide, and carbon monoxide, scanning millions of targets across the Milky Way to trace the origins of planetary systems.
Like Earth’s oceans, molecular clouds may hold “icebergs” of frozen compounds. SPHEREx will scan these icy time capsules to see how they shape newborn stars and planets.
Representative pic
A 1998 NASA mission barely found any water in space. Scientists now believe it wasn’t missing—it was locked away in cosmic ice. SPHEREx will finally reveal where it’s been hiding.
Water isn’t the only target. SPHEREx will hunt for carbon-based molecules, the essential ingredients for life, offering new clues about where habitable worlds might form.
Representative pic
Unlike traditional telescopes, SPHEREx won’t just take images—it will scan molecular clouds in 3D, revealing ice layers and their evolution over time with unprecedented detail.
SPHEREx will team up with NASA’s James Webb Telescope. It will scan vast icy regions, while Webb zooms in for close-ups—together, they might uncover the recipe for life itself.
SPHEREx’s data could reveal if the water in Earth’s oceans predates our solar system—suggesting water, and maybe life’s ingredients, are older than our sun.