NASA’s latest space observatory, SPHEREx, blasted into orbit Tuesday night aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, embarking on a mission to map the entire sky like never before. Launched from California, the telescope will survey hundreds of millions of galaxies and their collective glow across cosmic history. Accompanying SPHEREx were four small NASA satellites, PUNCH, designed to study the sun’s corona and solar wind from a separate polar orbit.

The $488 million SPHEREx mission, short for Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explorer, aims to unravel the universe’s origins and evolution. Unlike the detailed views of Hubble and Webb, SPHEREx will capture the total light emitted by galaxies—including faint, ancient ones from the Big Bang’s aftermath—over two years in four full-sky surveys. “This cosmological glow captures all light over cosmic history,” said chief scientist Jamie Bock of Caltech, noting its unique approach to uncovering hidden light sources.

Weighing 1,110 pounds and shaped like a cone, SPHEREx will orbit 400 miles above Earth, using infrared detectors to map the sky in 102 colors invisible to humans. These detectors, chilled to minus 350°F with nested aluminum shields, will also hunt for water and life’s building blocks in the Milky Way’s icy clouds. “It’s like seeing the universe through rainbow-colored glasses,” said Beth Fabinsky, deputy project manager at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Delayed two weeks due to technical issues, the launch marks a milestone in astrophysics. While PUNCH satellites focus on solar dynamics, SPHEREx’s broad infrared survey will offer a vibrant, comprehensive cosmic map—shedding light on galaxy formation, cosmic inflation, and the seeds of life across the universe.