NASA’s SPHEREx mission will survey the entire sky in 102 different “colors” of light, offering scientists an unprecedented look at the earliest days of the universe and much more

NASA’s newest space telescope, called SPHEREx, finally got off the ground this week, after a series of delays that had stalled its launch since late February. From low-Earth orbit, it will gather data on millions of stars and galaxies—and search for the ingredients of life.