Spacewatch: Nasa to produce new survey of the universe

Comprehensive mission known as SPHEREx will collect data on more than 300m galaxies

Nasa has approved a new sky survey mission that will explore the origins of the universe and its galaxies and of water in planetary systems.

This comprehensive mission is known as SPHEREx (the spectro-photometer for the history of the universe, epoch of reionization and ices explorer). It will survey the sky in 96 different colour bands that span the optical and near-infrared wavelengths of light.