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