Representatives from SPHEREx, NASA's spectrophotometer designed to study the history of the universe, the epoch of reionization and ice exploration, recently visited the New York Stock Exchange to ring the closing bell.
Several members of the SPHEREx team, including flight systems manager Michael Thelen, rang the closing bell on Wall Street earlier this week.
The closing bell ceremony also included employees of London-based aerospace company BAE Systems Inc., which provided the telescope and space bus for the mission.
The main objective of the two-year SPHEREx mission is to conduct an “all-sky spectral survey” using a space-based observatory in the near-infrared range.
NASA built the probe at its Joint Propulsion Laboratory at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.
SPHEREx was successfully launched on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket in March, marking the first dual launch in the private company's history.
The observatory “will collect data on more than 450 million galaxies and more than 100 million stars in the Milky Way to probe the origins of the universe,” according to NASA's mission page.
The $488 mission will create a 3-D map over the course of up to two years, which scientists hope will give them more insight into how the universe expanded so rapidly.
Sourse: www.upi.com
