NASA’s SPHEREx Space Telescope Begins Capturing Entire Sky
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| NASA's SPHEREX telescope shows the infra image of sky |
NASA's SPHEREx space telescope has begun capturing the entire sky, marking a significant milestone in its mission to map the cosmos. Launched on March 11, 2025, SPHEREx has spent six weeks undergoing checkouts and calibrations, ensuring it's working as expected. Now it’s mapping the entire sky — not just a large part of it — to chart the positions of hundreds of millions of galaxies in 3D to answer some big questions about the universe. On May 1, the spacecraft began regular science operations, which consist of taking about 3,600 images per day for the next two years to provide new insights about the origins of the universe, galaxies, and the ingredients for life in the Milky Way.
Here's what we know about the mission:
- Mission Objective: SPHEREx aims to chart the positions of hundreds of millions of galaxies in 3D, answering big questions about the universe. It will create a map of the cosmos unlike any other, observing 102 wavelengths of infrared light. When SPHEREx takes a picture of the sky, the light is sent to six detectors that each produces a unique image capturing different wavelengths of light. These groups of six images are called an exposure, and SPHEREx takes about 600 exposures per day. When it’s done with one exposure, the whole observatory shifts position — the mirrors and detectors don’t move as they do on some other telescopes. Rather than using thrusters, SPHEREx relies on a system of reaction wheels, which spin inside the spacecraft to control its orientation.
Hundreds of thousands of SPHEREx’s images will be digitally woven together to create four all-sky maps in two years. By mapping the entire sky, the mission will provide new insights about what happened in the first fraction of a second after the big bang. In that brief instant, an event called cosmic inflation caused the universe to expand a trillion-trillionfold.
- Capturing Images: The space telescope takes about 3,600 unique images per day, using its advanced infrared capabilities to peer through cosmic dust and probe distant parts of the universe.
- First Light: SPHEREx captured its first cosmic images on March 27, demonstrating its ability to detect near-infrared light and showcasing its potential for groundbreaking discoveries.
- Science Operations: Regular science operations began on May 1, 2025, with SPHEREx set to map the entire sky four times during its two-year mission.
- Significance: This new observatory will contribute to the suite of space-based astrophysics survey missions, paving the way for future discoveries and a deeper understanding of the universe.
More About SPHEREx
The SPHEREx mission is managed by JPL 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.
For more about SPHEREx, visit: https://science.nasa.gov/mission/spherex/