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E-mail Xinhua, March 12, 2025
LOS ANGELES, March 12 (Xinhua) -- NASA and SpaceX on Tuesday launched two new missions on a single rocket to collect data from galaxies and the sun.
The two missions, namely, SPHEREx (Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explorer), and PUNCH (Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere), were launched aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from California's Vandenberg Space Force Base at 8:10 p.m. Pacific Time (0310 GMT Wednesday).
After liftoff, NASA confirmed all instruments had been successfully deployed.
SPHEREx will survey the sky in optical and infrared light, gathering data on more than 450 million galaxies as well as 100 million stars in our galaxy. Every six months, SPHEREx will scan the entire sky to create a map in 96 color bands, according to NASA.
The PUNCH mission will use four suitcase-sized satellites to observe the sun and its environment. Located in low Earth orbit, the satellites will work together to make 3D observations, studying how the sun's corona turns into solar wind, according to NASA. Enditem
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