NASA will Launch SPHEREx Mission

NASA is launching an ambitious new mission SPHEREx to map the entire sky in order to understand the origins of the universe.

• The Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explorer (SPHEREx) mission will launch in 2023 and is planned to last for two years, surveying hundreds of millions of galaxies both close to us and far away.

About the SPHEREx Mission:

• SPHEREx will use optical and near-infrared light to survey the sky, capturing data on over 300 million galaxies and the more than 100 million stars within our own galaxy.
• Its primary goal is to learn about how our universe evolved and how common the essential ingredients for life are in planetary systems in our galaxy.
• It will map the entire sky every six months to create a map in 96 color bands, and will be searching for water and organic molecules like methanol or acetone in regions where stars and being born and new planets are forming.
• A further function of SPHEREx will be to identify targets which can be studied in more detail by future missions such as the long-awaited James Webb Space Telescope, which will be the world's most powerful telescope when it launches - 100 times as powerful as Hubble.
• The cost of the SPHEREx project is a hefty $242 million, which does not include launch costs.

Question:

Q. Which ambitious new mission is NASA launching in 2023 to map the entire sky in order to understand the origins of the universe?
a. SPACEx
b. SPHEREx
c. COSMOSx
d. GALAXYx