NASA Launches SPHEREx Telescope to Uncover Universe’s Origins but Leaves Bigger Questions Unanswered

“How did the universe begin?

“How did galaxies start to develop?

“Well, how did I get here?”

So, how will SPHEREx help answer these questions? Beth Fabinsky, the deputy project manager for SPHEREx, explained to NPR’s Scott Detrow that this telescope has a unique capability as an “All-sky survey, [with] a very wide field of view. We’re going to see the entire universe four times in our two-year mission. And that means we can draw really grand conclusions from a very large data set about the universe that we see.”

But how will that explore the origins of the universe?

Astronomers are in agreement that the Big Bang led to an astronomical expansion the size of our universe in very short order. What astronomers don’t know is what triggered that expansion, or why it was so extensive. The hope is that SPHEREx will somehow provide insight into how our universe began.

They may need to get used to disappointment.

The idea of the Big Bang was first put forward by Dr. Edwin Hubble, the man we named the Hubble telescope after. His theory was that, at one time, all matter was packed into a dense mass at temperatures of many trillions of degrees. Then, about 13.8 billion years ago, there was a huge explosion. From that explosion, all the matter that today forms our planets and stars was born, and the universe was created.

Hubble’s idea was confirmed through what was then called the discovery of the century. On April 24, 1992, the Cosmic Background Explorer satellite, better known as COBE, gave stunning confirmation of the hot Big Bang creation event.  

SPHEREx is trying to find out what caused the Big Bang. If they really want to get at the origins of the universe, they might want to add something to their list.

We know that something cannot come from nothing. We also know that the universe isn’t eternal. It had a beginning. But according to the science of the Big Bang, something did come from nothing.  

That raises all kinds of questions and one in particular. You can’t just say that everything began with the Big Bang and act as if somehow, you’ve explained the origins of the universe, because that still doesn’t explain where the matter that exploded came from. Something – or Someone – somehow brought that first matter miraculously into existence in such a way that it then exploded into the universe.  

And that something, or Someone, had to be outside of space and time since space and time didn’t even exist before the Big Bang.  Which, science says, cannot have happened by the current known laws of physics. Which means we’re talking about something outside of the laws of physics. Or even over and above the laws of physics. Something outside of all natural phenomena.

There’s a category for that. If it’s outside of natural phenomena, it’s called supernatural.  

George Smoot, head of the COBE satellite team who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2006 for his work, noted that when the COBE satellite had measured the ripples in the microwave background radiation that gave confirmation to the Big Bang theory, it was “like looking at God.” Yes, or at least His handiwork.

But what happened before that?  

That is not something SPHEREx will be able to scan. But whatever it was, or Whoever it was, is the real answer to our existential questions.

James Emery White

Sources
Manuela López Restrepo, “NASA's Upcoming Telescope Launch Aims to Address Some Existential Questions,” NPR, March 3, 2025, read online.
Josh Dinner, “NASA Delays Launch of SPHEREx and PUNCH Missions to March 8,” Space.com, March 5, 2025, read online.
Ari Daniel, “Searching the Entire Sky for the Secrets to Our Universe,” NPR, February 9, 2025, read online.
Fred Heeren, Show Me God: What the Message from Space Is Telling Us About God.

Photo Courtesy: ©Wikimedia Commons/NASA/JPL
Published Date: March 13, 2025

James Emery White is the founding and senior pastor of Mecklenburg Community Church in Charlotte, NC, and a former professor of theology and culture at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, where he also served as their fourth president. His latest book, Hybrid Church: Rethinking the Church for a Post-Christian Digital Age, is now available on Amazon or from your favorite bookseller. To enjoy a free subscription to the Church & Culture blog, visit churchandculture.org where you can view past blogs in our archive, read the latest church and culture news from around the world, and listen to the Church & Culture Podcast. Follow Dr. White on X, Facebook, and Instagram at @JamesEmeryWhite.