Produced by: Mohsin Shaikh
NASA’s SPHEREx telescope, launching aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 on Feb. 27, will scan the sky in 102 infrared colors, mapping the entire universe and uncovering cosmic structures that even James Webb might have missed.
Unlike JWST, which zooms into specific deep-space targets, SPHEREx will conduct a panoramic, all-sky infrared survey every six months, providing the first full-spectrum map of the celestial sky in human history.
Scientists will use SPHEREx to investigate the universe’s explosive expansion that occurred a trillionth of a trillionth of a billionth of a second after the Big Bang, a period that remains one of astrophysics’ biggest unsolved mysteries.
SPHEREx will create 3D maps of hundreds of millions of galaxies, helping researchers trace the universe’s evolution and providing new clues about how galaxies formed and evolved over billions of years.
One of SPHEREx’s goals is to scan interstellar space for icy organic molecules, which may have played a role in seeding life on Earth. It will help bridge the research being done by NASA’s OSIRIS-REx asteroid mission.
Infrared telescopes must remain cold to function properly, so SPHEREx is engineered with multi-layer photon shields and positioned in a sun-synchronous orbit to avoid heat interference from the Sun and Earth.
SPHEREx isn’t flying solo—its launch partner, NASA’s PUNCH mission, will study the Sun’s outer corona and solar wind, offering new insights into space weather that affects satellites and astronauts.
Despite its ambitious scope, SPHEREx costs just $488 million, a fraction of JWST’s $10 billion price tag. Yet, its sky-wide observations will complement Webb’s zoomed-in views, creating a richer cosmic dataset.
NASA’s Jamie Bock, SPHEREx’s principal investigator, says the true test of the mission’s success will be “popping the lid” on the telescope and capturing its first-ever cosmic image, a milestone expected within six months of launch.
Credit: NASA