WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - NASA will launch a sky-mapping space telescope next month that will improve the understanding of how the universe evolved and search for key ingredients for life in the galaxy.
NASA said it has temporarily targeted February 27 as the launch date for SPHEREx space observatory.
SPHEREx, or Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explorer, mission will help scientists better understand the structure of the universe, how galaxies form and evolve, and the origins and abundance of water.
The SPHEREx observatory will survey the entire celestial sky in near-infrared light to help answer cosmic questions involving the birth of the universe, and the subsequent development of galaxies. It also will search for ices of water and organic molecules in regions where stars are born from gas and dust, as well as disks around stars where new planets could be forming. Astronomers will use the mission to gather data on more than 450 million galaxies, as well as more than 100 million stars in the Milky Way galaxy.
The space observatory will share its ride on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with NASA's PUNCH (Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere) mission, which will lift off from Launch Complex 4E at Vandenberg Space Force Base in Central California.
The SPHEREx mission is managed by NASA JPL for the agency's Astrophysics Division within the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington.
The spacecraft is supplied by BAE Systems. The Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute contributed the non-flight cryogenic test chamber.
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