It's an eggshell white, conical probe named SPHEREx, which (get ready for a mouthful) stands for Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explorer.

As soon as the end of February, NASA and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory will launch a new telescope into orbit around the Earth called SPHEREx. Its goal is to examine nothing less than the essential ...