NASA's SPHEREx telescope will map out universe in extreme detail

NASA upcoming mission might be one of the most ambitious projects yet. The space agency is aiming to build a space observatory that will map out space in extreme detail. During the process, it will also survey millions of galaxies - some of which are so far that it takes around 10 billion years to reach out planet.

The span of the mission will be two years and will cost around $242 million can be expected to launch in the next five years. It would help astronomers learn about the origins of the universe. The mission is dubbed as SPHEREx which stands for "Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization, and Ices Explorer."

"SPHEREx measures the spectrum of every point on the sky in a unique way," Jamie Bock, SPHEREx's principal investigator, told Digital Trends. "We place six linear variable filters over six detector arrays, located on the focal plane of a 20cm diameter telescope. Each filter passes a narrow range of wavelengths, but the center wavelength continuously shifts over the array.

"This amazing mission will be a treasure trove of unique data for astronomers," Thomas Zurbuchen said in a statement. "It will deliver an unprecedented galactic map containing 'fingerprints' from the first moments in the universe's history. And we'll have new clues to one of the greatest mysteries in science: What made the universe expand so quickly less than a nanosecond after the big bang?"