NASA’s new mission will look at ‘fingerprints’ from early universe

NASA has announced a new space mission that it plans to launch soon, which will give insights about the universe and its ancient past.

Space agency NASA announced about its next mission called the Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explorer (SPHEREx), which is aimed to survey numerous galaxies, helping us to know more about the formation of universe.

The mission will observe hundreds of millions of galaxies with the help of optical and near-infrared light. Its ‘eyes’ will look as far back as 10 billion years, but also allow the team to answer questions about the stars closer to Earth, across our own Milky Way galaxy. It will gather data on over 300 million galaxies and over 100 million stars in Milky Way.

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SPHEREx will contain a cosmic magnifying glass over the infant stars in our home galaxy and search for the ingredients required for life – water and organic molecules. “This amazing mission will be a treasure trove of unique data for astronomers,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for NASA’s science mission directorate.

The mission will be able to create a stellar map of the sky in 96 various color bands, providing future NASA missions with new targets for further study. After every six months, the SPHEREx will survey the entire sky through the ‘technologies adapted from Earth satellites and Mars spacecraft’.

“It will deliver an unprecedented galactic map containing ‘fingerprints’ from the first moments in the universe’s history. And we’ll have new clues to one of the greatest mysteries in science: What made the universe expand so quickly less than a nanosecond after the Big Bang?” expressed Zurbuchen.

Furthermore, the SPHEREx is expected to launch in 2023 and is a planned two-year mission funded at $242 million, according to NASA.