NASA's SPHEREx Telescope Launches to Map the Cosmos on Tuesday

NASA's SPHEREx space telescope launched on Tuesday from California, embarking on a two-year mission to map the entire sky. The $488 million project aims to survey hundreds of millions of galaxies, capturing their combined cosmic glow to understand the universe's evolution since the Big Bang. SPHEREx, weighing 1,110 pounds, will orbit Earth over the poles at 400 miles altitude, completing four full-sky surveys using infrared vision. Unlike Hubble and Webb telescopes that focus on individual galaxies, SPHEREx will observe the total light from all galaxies, including the earliest ones. The mission also includes four suitcase-sized satellites to study the sun's corona and solar wind. SPHEREx is expected to begin sky mapping in six months, distinguishing 102 colors invisible to the human eye, creating the most colorful map of the cosmos.