Skip to main content

NASA will survey the entire sky with its SPHEREx observatory

NASA is ramping up plans for a new sky survey tool that could help unravel some of the biggest mysteries about the origin of the universe.

Exploring Cosmic Origins with NASA’s SPHEREx

The mission, called SPHEREx or Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explorer, is set to launch by April 2025 and will investigate big questions in cosmology, such as what happened in the first few seconds after the Big Bang and how the universe developed and evolved. To investigate these issues, the mission is different from telescopes like Hubble which look at individual stars or galaxies. Instead, SPHEREx is a type of mission called a survey telescope, which looks at the entire sky. That enables it to see information about the universe on a large scale.

Illustration of NASA’s SPHEREx spacecraft.
Illustration of NASA’s SPHEREx spacecraft. NASA/JPL-Caltech

“It’s the difference between getting to know a few individual people, and doing a census and learning about the population as a whole,” said Beth Fabinsky, deputy project manager for SPHEREx at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), in a statement. “Both types of studies are important, and they complement each other. But there are some questions that can only be answered through that census.”

Recommended Videos

SPHEREx uses different hardware from telescopes like Hubble and James Webb as well. Instead of having a very large mirror that can focus on very distant objects, it will have a primary mirror just 8 inches across. But it will be able to scan 99% of the sky every six months, which is far faster than these other telescopes. Like Webb, SPHEREx will look in the infrared wavelength and will use an instrument called a spectrometer which breaks down light to see what distant objects are composed of.

With the concept for the mission pinned down, now the team is working on getting the hardware ready for space. “We’re at the transition from doing things with computer models to doing things with real hardware,” said Allen Farrington, SPHEREx project manager at JPL. “The design for the spacecraft, as it stands, is confirmed. We have shown that it’s doable down to the smallest details. So now we can really start building and putting things together.”

The mission has faced delays due to covid, but the aim is to launch SPHEREx into low-Earth orbit by 2025 at the latest.

Georgina Torbet
Georgina is the Digital Trends space writer, covering human space exploration, planetary science, and cosmology. She…
James Webb trains its sights on the Extreme Outer Galaxy
The NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope has observed the very outskirts of our Milky Way galaxy. Known as the Extreme Outer Galaxy, this region is located more than 58 000 light-years from the Galactic centre.

A gorgeous new image from the James Webb Space Telescope shows a bustling region of star formation at the distant edge of the Milky Way. Called, dramatically enough, the Extreme Outer Galaxy, this region is located 58,000 light-years away from the center of the galaxy, which is more than twice the distance from the center than Earth is.

Scientists were able to use Webb's NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) and MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument) instruments to capture the region in sparkling detail, showing molecular clouds called Digel Clouds 1 and 2 containing clumps of hydrogen, which enables the formation of new stars.

Read more
How to watch NASA’s oldest active astronaut launch to the ISS on Wednesday
NASA astronaut Don Pettit.

NASA Astronaut Don Pettit Soyuz MS-26 Launch

Don Pettit isn't your average senior citizen. Instead of enjoying life in the slow lane, he's getting ready for a rocket ride to the International Space Station (ISS) on Wednesday.

Read more
Boeing Starliner lands safely back on Earth without its crew
NASA and Boeing welcomed Starliner back to Earth following the uncrewed spacecraft’s successful landing at 10:01 p.m. MDT Sept. 6, 2024, at the White Sands Space Harbor in New Mexico.

After an unexpectedly long time spent in orbit, the Boeing Starliner spacecraft has returned safely to Earth after three months. Although it was designed to carry astronauts to and from the International Space Station (ISS), the spacecraft returned home without crew following a problem with its thrusters.

The Starliner landed in White Sands Space Harbor in New Mexico just after midnight ET on September 7, bringing to an end its first crewed test flight. Its reentry through the atmosphere went to plan, and it performed a parachute-assisted landing in the desert that was cushioned with airbags. However, during the return flight, there were more minor issues with its thrusters, including two of the 27 reaction control thrusters getting hotter than expected, and one thruster on the crew module that failed -- although it was covered by a redundant thruster.

Read more