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The SPHEREx spacecraft can detect 102 colours in the infrared spectrum, all beyond the range of human eyes.
NASA’s SHEREx instrument during integration and testing. (Image Credit: BAE Systems).
New Delhi: NASA’s Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explorer, (SPHEREx) mission will be the first space telescope to observe the stars and galaxies in over 102 infrared colours. The infrared telescope will use a technique called spectroscopy to breakdown the light from distant objects into a spectrum. Careful examination of individual colours in this spectrum will allow astronomers to investigate the compositions of objects, and precisely measure the distance to them. Just like the James Webb Space Telescope with its sensitive infrared gaze, the SPHEREx observatory is also expected to provide scientists with valuable insights into the universe.
SPHEREx will be able to map the positions of millions of galaxies in three dimensions, allowing scientists to study the process of inflation, or the rapid expansion of the universe in the milliseconds after the Big Bang. During this expansion, small differences in the distribution of matter were amplified to large scale cosmic structures, voids and galaxy clusters across the entire universe. Scientists will also be able to get a better picture of the three dimensional distribution of galaxies, and consequently, dark matter. The instrument will also be sensitive enough to measure the total light from galaxies, and the faint glow of distant objects.
SPHEREx will explore a habitable universe
As previously mentioned, SPHEREx also has the power of mapping the distribution of elements and molecules. The observatory will be able to detect and measure water, carbon dioxide and other ingredients essential for life on Earth. Astronomers will be able to assemble an inventory of available ingredients for biochemical processes in entire galaxies. Scientists suspect that most of the water in the universe is stored in the form of ice, and SPHEREx will be able to trace water ice in interstellar clouds as well as the accretion discs around newborn stars, which are the sites of assembly for exoplanets. NASA hopes to launch the SPHEREx mission in April 2025.
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