Consider the following statements regarding NASA's SPHEREx Mission:

1. NASA has developed SPHEREx, a space telescope, to explore the origins of the universe.

2. The mission aims to provide insights into cosmic inflation, the rapid expansion of the universe that occurred a fraction of a second after the Big Bang.

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

The correct answer is option 3.

In News

• NASA's SPHEREx space telescope is set for launch aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on March 4 to study the early universe and map the distribution of galaxies across the cosmos.

 Key Points

• SPHEREx (Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization, and Ices Explorer) has been designed to study the origins of the universe and search for water reservoirs in the Milky Way. Hence, Statement 1 is correct.
• One of its primary goals is to study cosmic inflation, the rapid expansion of the universe that happened within a fraction of a second after the Big Bang, approximately 13.8 billion years ago. Hence, Statement 2 is correct.
• The telescope will create a 3D map of the cosmos in 102 colors, collecting data on more than 450 million galaxies and 100 million stars.

Additional Information

• Alongside SPHEREx, NASA is sending PUNCH, a mission to study the solar corona and solar wind.
• SPHEREx will measure the collective glow of light from intergalactic space and analyze star-forming regions within our galaxy.
• The data gathered could help scientists better understand the physics driving cosmic inflation.