Two NASA Missions Launched To Search For Ingredients Of Life In Milky Way Galaxy, CME Threat From Sun

US space agency NASA has launched a couple of missions, SPHEREx and PUNCH, whose intention is to provide humanity with some critically important information. These missions will look for ingredients of life in the Milky Way Galaxy, study the origins of our universe and the history of galaxies as well as the Sun and its proclivity in sparking CME. Notably, this information will go a long way in not just understanding what has happened in the in the past over billions of years ago, but also be able to understand the present and perhaps take advantage of it all, for humanity's sake, and plan for the future. The NASA teams will explore the cosmos from far-out galaxies to our neighborhood star - a vast canvas.

US space agency NASA has launched a couple of missions, SPHEREx and PUNCH, whose intention is to provide humanity with some critically important information. These missions will look for ingredients of life in the Milky Way Galaxy, study the origins of our universe and the history of galaxies as well as the Sun and its proclivity in sparking CME. Notably, this information will go a long way in not just understanding what has happened in the in the past over billions of years ago, but also be able to understand the present and perhaps take advantage of it all, for humanity's sake, and plan for the future. The NASA teams will explore the cosmos from far-out galaxies to our neighborhood star - a vast canvas.

These instruments will go a long way in answering humanity's deepest questions about life and its origins and future. “Questions like ‘How did we get here?’ and ‘Are we alone?’ have been asked by humans for all of history,” said James Fanson, SPHEREx project manager at JPL. “I think it’s incredible that we are alive at a time when we have the scientific tools to actually start to answer them.”

NASA has announced today the launch of its latest astrophysics observatory, Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explorer (SPHEREx).

SPHEREx is not alone. Accompanying it are 4 satellites that make up the agency’s Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere (PUNCH) mission. This instrument will study how the Sun’s outer atmosphere actually becomes the solar wind.

For NASA, SPHEREx and PUNCH combo will multiply their potential to make for a successful mission. “...sending both SPHEREx and PUNCH up on a single rocket doubles the opportunities to do incredible science in space,” said Nicky Fox, associate administrator, Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington.

What SPHEREx will do And its links with James Webb Space Telescope and Hubble Space Telescope

There is a connection between SPHREx and NASA’s space telescopes like the James Webb Space Telescope and Hubble Space Telescope. SPHEREx will create a 3D map of the entire celestial sky every six months. It will thereby provide a wide perspective to complement the work of the big space telescopes that observe smaller sections of the sky in more detail, such as James Webb Space Telescope and Hubble Space Telescope.

Apart from composition of cosmic objects, SPHEREx will survey our galaxy for hidden reservoirs of frozen water ice and other molecules, like carbon dioxide, that are essential to life as we know it.

PUNCH, on the other hand, will make global, 3D observations of the inner solar system and the Sun’s outer atmosphere, the corona, to learn how its mass and energy become the solar wind. The mission will explore the formation and evolution of space weather events such as coronal mass ejections, which can create storms of energetic particle radiation that can endanger spacecraft and astronauts.