Ouestion: NASA frecently announced to launch a SPHEREx Mission. Study of which of the following will be undertaken through this mission?
a) Mars
b) Jupiter
c) Galaxies and formation of Universe
d) Comets
Answer: (c)
Related Facts:-
- The United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has recently announced its new proposed mission SPHEREx.
- NASA for this purpose has made the selection of Elon Musk’s Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) to provide launch services.
- SPHEREx is short for Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization, and Ices Explorer (SPHEREx) spacecraft.
- SPHEREx is a planned two-year astrophysics mission to survey the sky in the near-infrared light, which, though not visible to the human eye.
- NASA through this mission aims to perform an all-sky survey to measure the near-infrared spectra of more than 300 million galaxies across the universe.
- This mission will also be used to study 100 million stars inside our own Milky Way galaxy.
- The small astrophysics spacecraft, SPHEREx, weighs 329-lb. (178 kilograms).
- It will be launched to space aboard SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket, in June 2024, from Space Launch Complex 4E at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.
- Scientists are expecting that the SPHEREx mission will serve as a powerful tool for answering cosmic questions involving the birth of the universe.
- Researchers are hopeful that this astrophysics mission will certainly provide us the understanding about subsequent development of galaxies
- The mission will also include search for essentials for the existence of life, i.e. water and organic molecules in regions where stars are born from gas and dust.
- It should be known that the birth of the new stars take place in stellar nurseries along with disks around stars where new planets could be forming.
By – Rajesh Tripathi