{"id":14015,"date":"2025-07-03T03:44:03","date_gmt":"2025-07-03T07:44:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/zobi.alcowep.com\/bourtagshdrevxnls658739\/how-nasas-spherex-mission-will-share-its-all-sky-map-with-the-world\/"},"modified":"2025-07-03T03:44:03","modified_gmt":"2025-07-03T07:44:03","slug":"how-nasas-spherex-mission-will-share-its-all-sky-map-with-the-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zobi.alcowep.com\/bourtagshdrevxnls658739\/how-nasas-spherex-mission-will-share-its-all-sky-map-with-the-world\/","title":{"rendered":"How NASA\u2019s SPHEREx Mission Will Share Its All-Sky Map With the World\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

How NASA\u2019s SPHEREx Mission Will Share Its All-Sky Map With the World\u00a0<\/h2>\n

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5 min read<\/p>\n

How NASA\u2019s SPHEREx Mission Will Share Its All-Sky Map With the World\u00a0<\/h1>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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NASA\u2019s 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\u2019s 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.<\/div>\n
NASA\/JPL-Caltech<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

NASA\u2019s 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<\/a> (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<\/a> on a weekly basis, allowing anyone to use the data to probe the secrets of the cosmos.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause we\u2019re looking at everything in the whole sky, almost every area of astronomy can be addressed by SPHEREx data,\u201d 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.<\/p>\n

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Almost every area of astronomy can be addressed by SPHEREx data.<\/span><\/h2>\n<\/div>\n
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\"Rachel<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
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Rachel Akeson<\/p>\n

SPHEREx Science Data Center Lead<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Other missions, like NASA\u2019s 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\u2019s four wavelength bands.<\/p>\n

By putting the many wavelength bands of SPHEREx data together, scientists can identify the signatures of specific molecules with a technique known as spectroscopy<\/a>. The mission\u2019s science team will use this method to study the distribution of frozen water and organic molecules \u2014 the \u201cbuilding blocks of life\u201d \u2014 in the Milky Way.<\/p>\n

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This animation shows how NASA\u2019s SPHEREx observatory will map the entire sky \u2014 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\u2019s openly available data will enable a wide variety of astronomical studies. Credit: NASA\/JPL-Caltech<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The SPHEREx science team will also use the mission\u2019s data to study the physics that drove the universe\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy making the data public, we enable the whole astronomy community to use SPHEREx data to work on all these other areas of science,\u201d Akeson said.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

The team publishes the procedures they used to process the data alongside the actual data products. \u201cWe want enough information in those files that people can do their own research,\u201d Akeson said.<\/p>\n

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One of the early test images captured by NASA\u2019s 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.<\/div>\n
NASA\/JPL-Caltech<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
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This image from NASA\u2019s 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 \u2014 polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons \u2014 do not radiate light in this color.<\/div>\n
NASA\/JPL-Caltech<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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