How NASA’s SPHEREx Mission Will Share Its All-Sky Map With the World

por admin | 3 julio, 2025 - 3:44 am |3 julio, 2025 Astronomy

How NASA’s SPHEREx Mission Will Share Its All-Sky Map With the World

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How NASA’s SPHEREx Mission Will Share Its All-Sky Map With the World

This infrared image of the Vela Molecular Ridge was captured by SPHEREx and is part of the mission’s first ever public data release. The thousands of stars in the image are mostly represented in shades of blue and green. The yellow patch on the right side of the image is a cloud of interstellar gas and dust that glows in some infrared colors due to radiation from nearby stars.

NASA’s SPHEREx mission will map the entire sky in 102 different wavelengths, or colors, of infrared light. This image of the Vela Molecular Ridge was captured by SPHEREx and is part of the mission’s first ever public data release. The yellow patch on the right side of the image is a cloud of interstellar gas and dust that glows in some infrared colors due to radiation from nearby stars.

NASA/JPL-Caltech

NASA’s newest astrophysics space telescope launched in March on a mission to create an all-sky map of the universe. Now settled into low-Earth orbit, SPHEREx (Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization, and Ices Explorer) has begun delivering its sky survey data to a public archive on a weekly basis, allowing anyone to use the data to probe the secrets of the cosmos.

“Because we’re looking at everything in the whole sky, almost every area of astronomy can be addressed by SPHEREx data,” said Rachel Akeson, the lead for the SPHEREx Science Data Center at IPAC. IPAC is a science and data center for astrophysics and planetary science at Caltech in Pasadena, California.

Almost every area of astronomy can be addressed by SPHEREx data.

Rachel Akeson

SPHEREx Science Data Center Lead

Other missions, like NASA’s now-retired WISE (Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer), have also mapped the entire sky. SPHEREx builds on this legacy by observing in 102 infrared wavelengths, compared to WISE’s four wavelength bands.

By putting the many wavelength bands of SPHEREx data together, scientists can identify the signatures of specific molecules with a technique known as spectroscopy. The mission’s science team will use this method to study the distribution of frozen water and organic molecules — the “building blocks of life” — in the Milky Way.

This animation shows how NASA’s SPHEREx observatory will map the entire sky — a process it will complete four times over its two-year mission. The telescope will observe every point in the sky in 102 different infrared wavelengths, more than any other all-sky survey. SPHEREx’s openly available data will enable a wide variety of astronomical studies. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

The SPHEREx science team will also use the mission’s data to study the physics that drove the universe’s expansion following the big bang, and to measure the amount of light emitted by all the galaxies in the universe over time. Releasing SPHEREx data in a public archive encourages far more astronomical studies than the team could do on their own.

“By making the data public, we enable the whole astronomy community to use SPHEREx data to work on all these other areas of science,” Akeson said.

NASA is committed to the sharing of scientific data, promoting transparency and efficiency in scientific research. In line with this commitment, data from SPHEREx appears in the public archive within 60 days after the telescope collects each observation. The short delay allows the SPHEREx team to process the raw data to remove or flag artifacts, account for detector effects, and align the images to the correct astronomical coordinates.

The team publishes the procedures they used to process the data alongside the actual data products. “We want enough information in those files that people can do their own research,” Akeson said.

A cloud of dust imaged by SPHEREx in 3.29 microns, an infrared wavelength invisible to the human eye that has been adjusted to appear red in this image. — One of the early test images captured by NASA’s SPHEREx mission in April 2025. This image shows a section of sky in one infrared wavelength, or color, that is invisible to the human eye but is represented here in a visible color. This particular wavelength (3.29 microns) reveals a cloud of dust made of a molecule similar to soot or smoke.

NASA/JPL-Caltech

A patch of sky imaged by SPHEREx in 0.98 microns, an infrared wavelength invisible to the human eye that has been adjusted to appear blue in this picture. The cloud of dust in this image does not appear because it is invisible in this wavelength. — This image from NASA’s SPHEREx shows the same region of space in a different infrared wavelength (0.98 microns), once again represented by a color that is visible to the human eye. The dust cloud has vanished because the molecules that make up the dust — polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons — do not radiate light in this color.

NASA/JPL-Caltech

During its two-year prime mission, SPHEREx will survey the entire sky twice a year, creating four all-sky maps. After the mission reaches the one-year mark, the team plans to release a map of the whole sky at all 102 wavelengths.

In addition to the science enabled by SPHEREx itself, the telescope unlocks an even greater range of astronomical studies when paired with other missions. Data from SPHEREx can be used to identify interesting targets for further study by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, refine exoplanet parameters collected from NASA’s TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite), and study the properties of dark matter and dark energy along with ESA’s (European Space Agency’s) Euclid mission and NASA’s upcoming Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope.

In this illustration, NASA's SPHEREx mission is highlighted among a line of other NASA space telescopes.

The SPHEREx mission’s all-sky survey will complement data from other NASA space telescopes. SPHEREx is illustrated second from the right. The other telescope illustrations are, from left to right: the Hubble Space Telescope, the retired Spitzer Space Telescope, the retired WISE/NEOWISE mission, the James Webb Space Telescope, and the upcoming Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope.

NASA/JPL-Caltech

The IPAC archive that hosts SPHEREx data, IRSA (NASA/IPAC Infrared Science Archive), also hosts pointed observations and all-sky maps at a variety of wavelengths from previous missions. The large amount of data available through IRSA gives users a comprehensive view of the astronomical objects they want to study.

“SPHEREx is part of the entire legacy of NASA space surveys,” said IRSA Science Lead Vandana Desai. “People are going to use the data in all kinds of ways that we can’t imagine.”

NASA’s Office of the Chief Science Data Officer leads open science efforts for the agency. Public sharing of scientific data, tools, research, and software maximizes the impact of NASA’s science missions. To learn more about NASA’s commitment to transparency and reproducibility of scientific research, visit science.nasa.gov/open-science. To get more stories about the impact of NASA’s science data delivered directly to your inbox, sign up for the NASA Open Science newsletter.

By Lauren Leese
Web Content Strategist for the Office of the Chief Science Data Officer

More About SPHEREx

The SPHEREx mission is managed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory for the agency’s Astrophysics Division within the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters. BAE Systems in Boulder, Colorado, built the telescope and the spacecraft bus. The science analysis of the SPHEREx data will be conducted by a team of scientists located at 10 institutions in the U.S., two in South Korea, and one in Taiwan. Caltech in Pasadena managed and integrated the instrument. The mission’s principal investigator is based at Caltech with a joint JPL appointment. Data will be processed and archived at IPAC at Caltech. The SPHEREx dataset will be publicly available at the NASA-IPAC Infrared Science Archive. Caltech manages JPL for NASA.

To learn more about SPHEREx, visit:

https://nasa.gov/SPHEREx

Media Contacts

Calla Cofield
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
626-808-2469
calla.e.cofield@jpl.nasa.gov

Amanda Adams
Office of the Chief Science Data Officer
256-683-6661
amanda.m.adams@nasa.gov

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Jul 02, 2025

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What’s Up: July 2025 Skywatching Tips from NASA

por admin | 3 julio, 2025 - 3:43 am |3 julio, 2025 Astronomy

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What’s Up: July 2025 Skywatching Tips from NASA

A.M./P.M. Planet Watching, Plus the Eagle Constellation

Mars shines in the evening, and is joined briefly by Mercury. Jupiter joins Venus as the month goes on. And all month, look for Aquila the eagle.

Skywatching Highlights

All Month – Planet Visibility:

Venus: Shines brightly in the east each morning during the couple of hours before sunrise, with the Pleiades and bright stars Aldebaran and Capella.
Mars: Sits in the west, about 20 degrees above the horizon as twilight fades. Sets a couple of hours after dark.
Jupiter: Starts to become visible low in the east in the hour before sunrise after mid-month. You’ll notice it rises a bit higher each day through August, quickly approaching closer to Venus each morning.
Mercury: Visible very low in the west (10 degrees or lower) the first week or so in July. Find it for a short time before it sets, beginning 30-45 minutes after sunset.
Saturn: Rises around midnight and climbs to a point high in the south as dawn approaches.

Daily Highlights:

July 1 – 7 – Mercury is relatively bright and easy to spot without a telescope, beginning about 30-45 minutes after sunset for the first week or so of July. You will need an unobstructed view toward the horizon, and note that it sets within an hour after the Sun.

July 21 & 22 – Moon, Venus, & Jupiter – Look toward the east this morning to find a lovely scene, with the crescent Moon and Venus, plus several bright stars. And if you have a clear view toward the horizon, Jupiter is there too, low in the sky.

July 28 – Moon & Mars – The crescent Moon appears right next to Mars this evening after sunset.

All month – Constellation: Aquila – The Eagle constellation, Aquila, appears in the eastern part of the sky during the first half of the night. Its brightest star, Altair, is the southernmost star in the Summer Triangle, which is an easy-to-locate star pattern in Northern Hemisphere summer skies.

Transcript

What’s Up for July? Mars shines in the evening sky, sixty years after its first close-up, Venus brightens your mornings, and the eagle soars overhead.

First up, Mercury is visible for a brief time following sunset for the first week of July. Look for it very low in the west 30 to 45 minutes after sundown. It sets within the hour after that, so be on the ball if you want to catch it!

Mars is visible for the first hour or two after it gets dark. You’ll find it sinking lower in the sky each day and looking a bit dimmer over the course of the month, as our two planets’ orbits carry them farther apart. The crescent Moon appears right next to Mars on the 28th.

An illustrated sky chart shows a view of the western sky 45 minutes after sunset. The scene features a twilight background with faint stars and labeled compass directions:

Sky chart showing Mercury and Mars in the western sky following sunset in early July.

NASA/JPL-Caltech

July is the 60th anniversary of the first successful flyby of Mars, by NASA’s Mariner 4 spacecraft in 1965. Mariner 4 sent back the first photos of another planet from deep space, along with the discovery that the Red Planet has only a very thin, cold atmosphere.

Next, Saturn is rising late in the evening, and by dawn it’s high overhead to the south.

Looking to the morning sky, Venus shines brightly all month. You’ll find it in the east during the couple of hours before sunrise, with the Pleiades and bright stars Aldebaran and Capella. And as the month goes on, Jupiter makes its morning sky debut, rising in the hour before sunrise and appearing a little higher each day.

An illustrated sky chart shows a view of the eastern sky 1 hour before sunrise. The scene features a dark twilight background with faint stars and labeled compass directions:

Sky chart showing Venus in the morning sky in July.

NASA/JPL-Caltech

By the end of the month, early risers will have the two brightest planets there greeting them each morning. They’re headed for a super-close meetup in mid-August, and the pair will be a fixture of the a.m. sky through late this year. Look for them together with the crescent moon on the 21st and 22nd.

Aquila, The Eagle

From July and into August, is a great time to observe the constellation Aquila, the eagle.

An illustrated sky chart shows a view of the eastern sky around 10pm in July. The scene features a dark, nighttime background with faint stars. Near center are two shapes — patterns of stars, connected by faint purple lines. At center is the Summer Triangle, with its three bright stars, Vega, Altair, and Deneb, labeled. On its left side is the Aquila constellation. Altair is its brightest star and the eagle's right with points upward, toward Vega. Finally, an arrow points toward the left, indicating the direction of north on the sky. The eagle appears to be flying toward the north.

Sky chart showing the shape and orientation of the constellation Aquila in the July evening sky. Aquila’s brightest star, Altair, is part of the Summer Triangle star pattern.

NASA/JPL-Caltech

This time of year, it soars high into the sky in the first half of the night. Aquila represents the mythical eagle that was a powerful servant and messenger of the Greek god Zeus. The eagle carried his lightning bolts and was a symbol of his power as king of the gods.

To find Aquila in the sky, start by locating its brightest star, Altair. It’s one the three bright stars in the Summer Triangle, which is super easy to pick out during summer months in the Northern Hemisphere. Altair is the second brightest of the three, and sits at the southernmost corner of the triangle.

The other stars in Aquila aren’t as bright as Altair, which can make observing the constellation challenging if you live in an area with a lot of light pollution. It’s easier, though, if you know how the eagle is oriented on the sky. Imagine it’s flying toward the north with its wings spread wide, its right wing pointed toward Vega. If you can find Altair, and Aquila’s next brightest star, you can usually trace out the rest of the spread-eagle shape from there. The second half of July is the best time of the month to observe Aquila, as the Moon doesn’t rise until later then, making it easier to pick out the constellation’s fainter stars.

Observing the constellation Aquila makes for a worthy challenge in the July night sky. And once you’re familiar with its shape, it’s hard not to see the mythical eagle soaring overhead among the summertime stars.

Here are the phases of the Moon for July.

The main phases of the Moon are illustrated in a horizontal row, with the first quarter moon on July 2, full moon on July 10, third quarter on July 17, and the new moon on July 24.

The phases of the Moon for July 2025.

NASA/JPL-Caltech

You can stay up to date on all of NASA’s missions exploring the solar system and beyond at science.nasa.gov. I’m Preston Dyches from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and that’s What’s Up for this month.

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To the Spacemobile!

por admin | 3 julio, 2025 - 3:43 am |3 julio, 2025 Astronomy

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To the Spacemobile!

NASA

In this Nov. 1, 1964, image, three members of NASA’s Lewis Research Center’s (now NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland) Educational Services Office pose with one of the center’s Spacemobile space science demonstration units. Once the NACA (National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics) became NASA, public outreach became one of the agency’s core tenets. Lewis, which had previously been a closed laboratory, began hosting open houses and elaborate space fairs in the early 1960s.

In addition, the center initiated educational programs that worked with local schools and a robust speaker’s bureau that explained NASA activities to the community. One aspect of these efforts was the Spacemobile Program. These vehicles included a delegated speaker, exhibits, models, and other resources. The Spacemobiles, which made forays across the Midwest, were extremely active throughout the 1960s.

Image credit: NASA

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Monika Luabeya

Discovery Alert: Flaring Star, Toasted Planet

por admin | 3 julio, 2025 - 3:43 am |3 julio, 2025 Astronomy

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Discovery Alert: Flaring Star, Toasted Planet

In the upper left quadrant of a vertical image, against a black background, a large orange-yellow star is shown with tendrils of gas – a stellar flare – streaming out from the star at about the 4 o'clock position. The flare is streaming toward a bluish planet, smaller than the star, at the center right of the image; streaks of grayish white streaming from the planet toward the lower right indicate dissipation of the planet's atmosphere in response to the flare. A second planet, much smaller because farther away, can be seen to the right of the star and above the foreground planet.

Artist’s concept of the star HIP 67522 with a flare erupting toward an orbiting planet, HIP 67522 b. A second planet, HIP 67522 c, is shown in the background.

Janine Fohlmeister, Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam

The Discovery

A giant planet some 400 light-years away, HIP 67522 b, orbits its parent star so tightly that it appears to cause frequent flares from the star’s surface, heating and inflating the planet’s atmosphere.

Key Facts

On planet Earth, “space weather” caused by solar flares might disrupt radio communications, or even damage satellites. But Earth’s atmosphere protects us from truly harmful effects, and we orbit the Sun at a respectable distance, out of reach of the flares themselves.

Not so for planet HIP 67522 b. A gas giant in a young star system – just 17 million years old – the planet takes only seven days to complete one orbit around its star. A “year,” in other words, lasts barely as long as a week on Earth. That places the planet perilously close to the star. Worse, the star is of a type known to flare – especially in their youth.

In this case, the proximity of the planet appears to result in fairly frequent flaring.

Details

The star and the planet form a powerful but likely a destructive bond. In a manner not yet fully understood, the planet hooks into the star’s magnetic field, triggering flares on the star’s surface; the flares whiplash energy back to the planet. Combined with other high-energy radiation from the star, the flare-induced heating appears to have increased the already steep inflation of the planet’s atmosphere, giving HIP 67522 b a diameter comparable to our own planet Jupiter despite having just 5% of Jupiter’s mass.

This might well mean that the planet won’t stay in the Jupiter size-range for long. One effect of being continually pummeled with intense radiation could be a loss of atmosphere over time. In another 100 million years, that could shrink the planet to the status of a “hot Neptune,” or, with a more radical loss of atmosphere, even a “sub-Neptune,” a planet type smaller than Neptune that is common in our galaxy but lacking in our solar system.

Fun Facts

Four hundred light-years is much too far away to capture images of stellar flares striking orbiting planets. So how did a science team led by Netherlands astronomer Ekaterina Ilin discover this was happening? They used space-borne telescopes, NASA’s TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite) and the European Space Agency’s CHEOPS (CHaracterising ExoPlanets Telescope), to track flares on the star, and also to trace the path of the planet’s orbit.

Both telescopes use the “transit” method to determine the diameter of a planet and the time it takes to orbit its star. The transit is a kind of mini-eclipse. As the planet crosses the star’s face, it causes a tiny dip in starlight reaching the telescope. But the same observation method also picks up sudden stabs of brightness from the star – the stellar flares. Combining these observations over five years’ time and applying rigorous statistical analysis, the science team revealed that the planet is zapped with six times more flares than it would be without that magnetic connection.

The Discoverers

A team of scientists from the Netherlands, Germany, Sweden, and Switzerland, led by Ekaterina Ilin of the Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy, published their paper on the planet-star connection, “Close-in planet induces flares on its host star,” in the journal Nature on July 2, 2025.

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Near-Earth Asteroids as of July 2025

por admin | 3 julio, 2025 - 3:42 am |3 julio, 2025 Astronomy

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Near-Earth Asteroids as of July 2025

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Near-Earth Asteroids as of July 2025

Each month, NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office releases a monthly update featuring the most recent figures on NASA’s planetary defense efforts, near-Earth object close approaches, and other timely facts about comets and asteroids that could pose an impact hazard with Earth. Here is what we’ve found so far.

Updated: July 2, 2025

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