NASA Launches PUNCH and SPHEREx Space Telescopes to Uncover Mysteries of the Sun and the Early Universe

Today at 06:10 Moscow time, the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. It carried NASA’s SPHEREx infrared observatory and the PUNCH solar observatory complex, consisting of four separate devices, into space. At the time of writing, the launch is considered successful. Both observatories will begin scientific work in about three months after equipment checkout.

Artist’s impression of the SPHEREx observatory. Image credit: NASA

The launch of these missions was postponed five times, both because of the California wildfires and because of bad weather in the launch area in February. The payload could not be risked: the SPHEREx observatory costs $488 million, and PUNCH – $165 million. The total weight of the cargo was 756 kg. The launches were combined to reduce the final cost of sending the devices into orbit.

The SPHEREx observatory and the PUNCH complex will be launched into polar sun-synchronous orbits. The difference is that SPHEREx will always be in the Earth’s shadow, while PUNCH will be constantly facing the Sun. The scientific work of each platform should last at least two years with the possibility of extension.

Real images of spacecraft after deployment in orbit

The SPHEREx observatory will conduct the first complete survey of the sky in 102 “colors” of the infrared spectrum. It is known that the wavelength of light stretches as it moves through the Universe, shifting into the red and infrared regions, after which it becomes invisible to the human eye. It is this region of the spectrum that carries information about the dawn of the Universe. The SPHEREx infrared telescope will collect data on the era of reionization, when the first stars began to shine, and will also look through the curtains of dust and gas in search of traces of ice.

Over the course of two years, SPHEREx is expected to collect data on more than 450 million galaxies and over 100 million stars in the Milky Way. The telescope will operate in roughly the same range as James Webb, but with a much wider coverage. With its wide-angle optics, the observatory will conduct the first complete sky survey in just six months of observations. That will be a colossal amount of data.

PUNCH mission main apparatus

The PUNCH satellite complex is designed for three-dimensional observation of processes in the solar corona and the upper layers of the Sun’s atmosphere. One of the devices is equipped with a narrow-beam telescope with a coronagraph for studying the solar corona, and the other three have wide-angle sensors for polarimetry. Observation of the polarization of solar radiation allows us to recreate the processes occurring in the upper layers of the Sun’s atmosphere and its corona.

Artistic representation of a set of four PUNCH devices

Data from all four PUNCH spacecraft will allow us to reproduce solar dynamics as fully as possible. This is necessary to study the mechanisms of solar wind formation and, ultimately, to develop long-term space weather forecasts. Solar wind and plasma emissions can affect spacecraft electronics and ground infrastructure. In addition, they affect the Earth’s climate and biological processes, including human health. Studying the Sun is especially important because scientists still do not fully understand the physics of its processes.