SPHEREx and the four PUNCH satellites launched together in March 2025 with different scientific jobs.
Dated news brief · March 12, 2025
NASA's SPHEREx observatory and four PUNCH satellites launched together from California on March 11, 2025, aboard a Falcon 9 rocket. Ground teams established communication with both missions afterward.
Illustrative photograph, not an image of the specific event or discovery reported. Photo: SpaceX / Unsplash.
Their scientific jobs differ. SPHEREx was designed to survey the sky, investigate galaxy history, and look for frozen water and other molecules in the Milky Way. PUNCH would examine how the Sun's outer atmosphere becomes the solar wind.
SPHEREx's launch plan called for an all-sky map every six months, complementing telescopes that study smaller areas closely. Both missions needed testing before regular observations. This brief records the launch announcement, not subsequent progress.
Two kinds of looking
Look at a whole room, then study one small object. What does each view help you notice? The comparison offers a starting point for discussing why scientists use instruments with different fields of view.
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