NASA’s SPHEREx space telescope has begun its mission to map the entire sky in 3D

A space observatory designed to map the entire sky over a period of two years to further our understanding of the early universe has started snapping images. SPHEREx, which launched in early March, got started with its observations this past week after over a month of setup procedures and system checks, according to NASA. The space telescope will complete about 14.5 orbits of Earth per day, capturing roughly 3,600 images daily and observing the sky in an unprecedented 102 wavelengths of infrared light. Its observations will eventually be combined to create four “all-sky” maps.

SPHEREx’s 25 month survey will be a comprehensive one. The spacecraft “orbits Earth from north to south, passing over the poles, and each day it takes images along one circular strip of the sky,” NASA explains. “As the days pass and the planet moves around the Sun, SPHEREx’s field of view shifts as well so that after six months, the observatory will have looked out into space in every direction.” Researchers will use the SPHEREx observations to study the universe’s expansion in the moments after the big bang, and search for the ingredients for life elsewhere in the Milky Way.

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