SSC CGL 2025 Tier-II · Paper-I, 19 January 2026 · General Awareness · Question 22 of 150

We transcribed this text from the pictures of a candidate's response sheet for this paper; the answer is the key SSC marked with a green tick on that sheet. Solution last reviewed 11 September 2026.

Where this paper and its answers come from

SSC does not publish CGL question papers or a public answer key. This paper reaches us as a candidate's response sheet saved as pictures, so we transcribed the text from those pictures, and a second reader checked every question against them; where the layout carries meaning, we show the picture too. Each answer is the key SSC marked with a green tick on that sheet. SSC released a tentative key for challenge and later its final one, both only to candidates behind a login, and the sheet does not say which of the two it carries. UnlockIAS wrote the solutions.

Read the below statements: 1. NASA launched a space telescope, SPHEREx, to study the universe's "cosmic glow". 2. The Major Atmospheric Cherenkov Experiment (MACE) telescope was inaugurated at Hanle, Ladakh. Which of the above statements is/are correct?

(a)Only statement 2
(b)Neither statement 1 nor 2
(c)Statement 1 and 2 both
(d)Only statement 1

Answer

Why

Correct — C. Both statements are true.

Statement 1: NASA launched SPHEREx on 11 March 2025 (US Pacific time) on a Falcon 9 from Vandenberg Space Force Base. It maps the whole sky in near-infrared light and is to collect data on about 450 million galaxies.

Statement 2: The MACE telescope near Hanle, Ladakh, was formally inaugurated on 4 October 2024.

Why the others are wrong

(a)
Only statement 2 — Rejects Statement 1, which is true. NASA's SPHEREx lifted off on 11 March 2025, sharing its Falcon 9 with the PUNCH satellites.
(b)
Neither statement 1 nor 2 — Both statements are true: SPHEREx launched in March 2025, and MACE was inaugurated at Hanle in October 2024.
(d)
Only statement 1 — Rejects Statement 2, which is true. MACE, built by BARC with support from ECIL, stands at Hanle at about 4,300 m and was formally inaugurated on 4 October 2024.

Concept

Two telescopes with very different jobs.

SPHEREx (Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explorer) maps the entire sky to study what drove the early universe's inflation, how galaxies formed, and where the water in planetary systems came from.

MACE (Major Atmospheric Cherenkov Experiment) works from the ground. It detects very-high-energy gamma rays through the faint Cherenkov light their particle showers give off in the atmosphere.

SPHEREx lifted off at 8:10 pm PDT on 11 March 2025, which was already 12 March in UTC and in India. Reports giving either date describe the same launch.

Key facts

SPHEREx launched on 11 March 2025 (12 March UTC) on a SpaceX Falcon 9 from Vandenberg Space Force Base.
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory developed the SPHEREx payload with Caltech.
MACE stands at Hanle, Ladakh, at about 4,300 m, and was built indigenously by BARC with support from ECIL.
MACE was formally inaugurated on 4 October 2024 and detects very-high-energy gamma rays.

Study next

NISAR, the joint ISRO–NASA radar missionThe Indian Astronomical Observatory at Hanle, LadakhGamma-ray astronomy and imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes

Common traps

Assuming MACE must be in space because it studies gamma rays, when it is a ground telescope that reads their trace in the atmosphere.
Treating SPHEREx as an ISRO or joint mission, when it is NASA's.

Here a space launch and an Indian telescope are paired as statements, and both are true. The joint ISRO–NASA NISAR mission is asked at 19 Jan 2026, 11:00 AM, GA Q.10.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

Topic: Current events — all 162 SSC CGL questions on it, every solved shift.