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NASA's SPHEREx Mission Will Investigate the Origins of the Universe (engadget.com)

Posted by msmash on from the marching-forward dept.

NASA announced this week that it will create the Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explorer: SPHEREx for short. It'll look at how our universe has changed, and how common the ingredients of life are in the Milky Way. From a report: The space agency is aiming for a 2023 launch and has already earmarked $242 million for the project, not including launch costs, which is supposed to last for at least two years. Once SPHEREx is already in orbit, it will observe and collect data on over 300 million galaxies, some as far as 10 billion light-years away from Earth, and 100 million stars in our own Milky Way every six months. It will use technologies adapted from Earth satellites and Mars spacecraft to survey the sky in optical and near-infrared light. Since it will use 96 wavelengths in all, it will give NASA a way to create an extremely detailed sky map with a resolution that's much, much higher than previous ones.

20 comments

  1. Such a deal! by Locke2005 · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    That's less than the cost of a couple months of Trump visits to his own golf courses!

    --
    I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
    1. Re: Such a deal! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1

      Yes NASA is really showing how its a big deal

      In the meantime they prolly have a secret space program that is doing all kinds of crazy stuff we will NEVER know about

      Why else would drumpf want a space force? Certainly not for NASA

      In other news: i will investigate how many farts I can muster in an hour

    2. Re: Such a deal! by lgw · · Score: 0

      Why else would drumpf want a space force? Certainly not for NASA

      People do realize that the Space Force is just that part of the Air Force that launches and operates military satellites and the like, right? Russia has a similar arrangement.

      I don't get why people think that was odd. The Army Air Corp became the Air Force after WWII when it became clear it was it's own disjoint specialty. This is much the same.

      --
      Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
    3. Re: Such a deal! by Insanity+Defense · · Score: 1

      Why else would drumpf want a space force? Certainly not for NASA

      Money at 2nd or 3rd hand. Name in the history books - especially if he USES it.

  2. Shallow truths by Camel+Pilot · · Score: 1

    Was reading Alistar McGrath this last week and he proclaimed the superiority of religion to science is that science can only reveal "shallow truths". I guess SPHEREx is just another attempt to discover shallow truths.

    https://www.abc.net.au/religio...

    1. Re:Shallow truths by Insanity+Defense · · Score: 1

      Ah yes. Shallow truths. Ones with evidence unlike the "deep truths".

  3. Kabbalah by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1

    You can learn the origins of the universe, for free.

    1. Re:Kabbalah by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      We're discussing science and the quest for actual facts, actual knowledge, not fairytales, works of fiction, and outright lies.
      Flat Earthers are this way ----->
      I'm sure you'll have more to discuss with them then you will with any of us.

    2. Re:Kabbalah by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Ain't no space because ain't not globe earth

  4. Won't it be out of date by the time we get it? by Rick+Schumann · · Score: 1

    If the Universe is constantly expanding at a rate greater than the speed of light, then won't any information we get on it's origins from this be out-of-date by the time we get it?

    1. Re:Won't it be out of date by the time we get it? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      it's not constantly expanding, it's accelerating.

    2. Re:Won't it be out of date by the time we get it? by Rick+Schumann · · Score: 1

      Same difference. By the time we get the data it's outdated.

  5. Heads up arses by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Now, wouldn't properly funding an effort such as this be infinitely more beneficial to the U.S. and the rest of humanity than building a silly expensive wall that became obsolete about a century ago? I guess there's some perverse sort of continuum: a white whale coming from an orange whale.

    1. Re:Heads up arses by Gavagai80 · · Score: 1

      If an immigration crisis that peaked 20 years ago is a national emergency too urgent to wait for congress, the next president can declare the origin of the universe a 14 billion year national emergency too urgent to wait for congress.

      --
      This space intentionally left blank
    2. Re:Heads up arses by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What if one of the illegal immigrants that would have been stopped by the Wall poops on the SPEHEREx, ruining the project. You didn't think of that now, did you!

  6. Sigh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If only people dedicated as much energy to the cleverness of their experiments as the cleverness of their study names. The end result of this experiment will be, predictably, that there are a lot of points of light up there in the sky, far away and out of reach. Q. How common are the building blocks of life? A. Common enough to allow life to have started here on Earth Q. But is that really really common or not common at all? A. If I answer one or the other, will it make any difference during the lifetime of the human race?

  7. Misleading title. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The main goal of the telescope is to search for water and organic molecules in the Milky Way. A far cry from looking at the Big Bang or trying to find God for that matter.

  8. Fun with Acronyms by Gornkleschnitzer · · Score: 4, Funny

    Not sure how they manage to get "SPHEREx" out of that full title.

    But I guess SPHUERIE didn't sound catchy enough.

    1. Re:Fun with Acronyms by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Manage is the right word. This is certainly a management "decision".

  9. Answer by sumitsin · · Score: 1

    People do realize that the Space Force is just that part of the Air Force that launches.