The $488 million Spherex mission aims to explain how galaxies formed and evolved over billions of years, and how the universe expanded so fast in its first moments.

The SPHEREx space telescope embarked on its mission from the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, carried by SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket. According to the NASA, its main objective is to create a map of the entire sky and explore the origins of the universe.

Nasa launched the $488 million Spherex space telescope on Tuesday to map the entire sky and understand galaxy formation and cosmic evolution. Using infrared sensors, it will create the most comprehensive cosmic map by observing hundreds of millions of galaxies.