NASA Selects New Mission to Explore Origins of Universe

NASA Selects New Mission to Explore Origins of Universe

NASA has selected a new space mission that will help astronomers understand how our universe has evolved and how normal the content is for life in the planet's systems of our galaxy.

Spectro-photometer, Epoch of Reunionation and Years Explorer (SPHEREx) mission for the history of the Universe-The History of the Universe is a planned two-year mission, funded in $ 242 million (including launch cost) and launch in 2023 The goal is to do.

"I am very excited about this new mission," said NASA's administrator Jim Brideenstein. "This not only extends the United States's powerful fleet of space-based missions devoted to highlighting the mysteries of the universe, but it is also an important part of the balanced science program, which includes missions of different sizes."

SPHEREx will survey the sky in near-infrared light along with optical, which, though not visible to human eyes, acts as a powerful tool to answer cosmic questions. Astronomers will use the mission to collect data on more than 100 million stars in our own Milky Way along with more than 300 million galaxies.

Thomas Zürbchen, the Associate Administrator of NASA's Science Mission Directorate, said, "This amazing mission will be a treasure of unique data for astronomers." It will provide an unprecedented galactic map containing 'fingerprints' from the first moments in the history of the universe. And we will have new clues for one of the biggest secrets of science: why the expansion of the universe has come down to nanoseconds after such a big bang? "

SPHEREx will survey billions of galaxies close and far, some 10 billion years away to reach their illumination of the Earth. In the Milky Way, a mission will search the water and organic molecules - essential for life, as we know - in stellar nurseries, areas where stars are born from gas and dust, as well as discs around those stars where new planets Are becoming.


Every six months, SPHEREx will survey the entire sky using the optimized technologies from Earth satellites and Mars spacecraft. Mission 96 will make a map of the whole sky in different color bands, which will be more than the color resolution of the previous all-sky maps. It will identify targets for more detailed studies such as future missions such as NASA's James Webb Space Telescope and Wide-Field Infrared Survey Telescope.

NASA's Astrophysics Investigator Program requested proposals for new missions in September 2016. Nine proposals were presented, and two mission concepts were selected for further study in August 2017. After a detailed review by NASA and a panel of external scientists and engineers, NASA determined that the SPHEREx concept study offered the best science ability and the most possible development plan.

The mission's chief investigator is James Bock of the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in Pasadena, California. Caltech will work with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) to develop mission payloads. JPL will also manage the mission.

Ball Aerospace SPHEREx will provide space and mission integration in Browfield, Colorado. In Korea's Korea Republic's Daejeon, Korea will contribute to the Astronomy and Space Science Institute, test equipment and scientific analysis.

The NASA's Explorer program, managed by the Agency's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, is the agency's oldest continuous program, which uses frequent, low-cost access to astrophysics and heliophysics programs, Designed to provide cost access. NASA's Science Mission Directorate

The program has launched more than 90 missions, which began with Explorer 1 in 1958, which explored the Earth's radiation belt. Another Explorer mission, Cosmic Background Explorer, which was launched in 1989, got Nobel Prize.