On Tuesday, a NASA telescope was launched from California into orbit as part of a mission to investigate the universe’s beginnings and search the Milky Way galaxy for undiscovered water reserves, which are essential for life.
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifted the megaphone-shaped SPHEREx (Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explorer) from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.
The observatory will gather information on over 450 million galaxies and over 100 million Milky Way stars during the course of its two-year mission. It will produce a 102-color, three-dimensional map of the universe.
