NASA’s Spherex Space Telescope is launched into orbit by SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket
NASA’s Spherex Observatory is now on a two-year mission in space to create a 3D map of the entire sky. After NASA announced SpaceX flights will be with NASA’s Punch (PolarimeTer (Unified Corona and Heliosphere) Microsoft, the telescope left the ground from the Falcon 9 rocket on the launch pad in California. Spherex separated from SpaceX’s vehicles on March 12 ET and will remain in low-Earth orbit, where it will remain in position relative to the sun, which will remain unchanged throughout the year.
The observatory orbits can view 360 degrees of sky in optical and near-infrared light every 98 minutes. Telescopes can capture more 360-degree bars as the Earth moves around the sun, allowing it to map the entire celestial body within six months. Spherex aims to image the entire sky every six months over two years, with the goal of creating 3D maps of over 450 million galaxies. The telescope will also image the Milky Way and collect information about more than 100 million stars.
Spherex’s map is destined to be colorful: it will use a technique called spectrum to divide infrared light emitted by stars and galaxies into 102 individual colors. NASA likens it to “the way the prism divides the sun into rainbows.” Observing objects of different colors will reveal their various properties, such as their composition, the agency said. For galaxies, their colors can help scientists determine their distance from our planet. Data Spherex will provide information for scientists about what happened after the Big Bang and can provide evidence of cosmic inflation, or the rapid expansion of the early universe. Spherex will release the shield of its telescope lens within four days, and once the temperature cools, it will begin its scientific operation within more than a month.
At the same time, these four fists will also use sun-synchronous orbits, which will draw the sun’s corona by taking polarized white light images of celestial objects. It will collect data to help us better understand how corona turns into solar wind, which could lead to accurate predictions of space weather events that affect spacecraft orbiting the spacecraft.
