NASA is preparing to launch a telescope into space this week from Vandenberg Space Force Base.
Roughly the size of a subcompact car, the SPHEREx telescope will orbit Earth, capturing images in over 100 colors to create a 3D map of the entire sky.
Vandenberg NASA Launch Services Program Chief Daye Hoffman said that unlike the James Webb Telescope, which focuses on fine details, the SPHEREx captures a wide-angle view of space.
“It's a one-of-a-kind telescope. They're looking to map hundreds-of-millions of galaxies in space in a new way,” Hoffman said. “So, it's a two-year mission. They're looking at a lot of what the human eye is unable to see, using infrared.”
A NASA news release said the goal of the mission is to delve into what happened in the first second after the Big Bang and to explore the building blocks of life in our galaxy.
Another mission, PUNCH, will launch alongside SPHEREx to study how the Sun’s outer atmosphere turns into solar winds.
The SPHEREx telescope is set to launch from Vanenberg on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket Friday, Feb. 28 at around 7 p.m.
