{"id":233160,"date":"2025-07-02T22:53:12","date_gmt":"2025-07-02T22:53:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/233160\/"},"modified":"2025-07-02T22:53:12","modified_gmt":"2025-07-02T22:53:12","slug":"how-nasas-spherex-mission-will-share-its-all-sky-map-with-the-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/233160\/","title":{"rendered":"How NASA\u2019s SPHEREx Mission Will Share Its All-Sky Map With the World\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

\t\t\t\t\t\"Rachel<\/p>\n

Rachel Akeson<\/p>\n

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

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<\/p>\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

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.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s James Webb Space Telescope, refine exoplanet parameters collected from NASA\u2019s TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite), and study the properties of dark matter and dark energy along with ESA\u2019s (European Space Agency\u2019s) Euclid mission and NASA\u2019s upcoming Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cSPHEREx is part of the entire legacy of NASA space surveys,\u201d said IRSA Science Lead Vandana Desai. \u201cPeople are going to use the data in all kinds of ways that we can’t imagine.\u201d<\/p>\n

NASA’s Office of the Chief Science Data Officer<\/a> leads open science efforts for the agency. Public sharing of scientific data, tools, research, and software maximizes the impact of NASA\u2019s science missions. To learn more about NASA\u2019s commitment to transparency and reproducibility of scientific research, visit science.nasa.gov\/open-science<\/a>. To get more stories about the impact of NASA\u2019s science data delivered directly to your inbox, sign up for the NASA Open Science newsletter<\/a>.<\/p>\n

By\u00a0Lauren Leese<\/strong>
Web Content Strategist for the\u00a0Office of the Chief Science Data Officer<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n

The SPHEREx mission is managed by NASA\u2019s Jet Propulsion Laboratory for the agency\u2019s 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\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

To learn more about SPHEREx, visit:<\/p>\n

https:\/\/nasa.gov\/SPHEREx<\/a><\/p>\n

Calla Cofield
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
626-808-2469
calla.e.cofield@jpl.nasa.gov<\/a><\/p>\n

Amanda Adams
Office of the Chief Science Data Officer
256-683-6661
amanda.m.adams@nasa.gov<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NASA\u2019s newest astrophysics space telescope launched in March on a mission to create an all-sky map of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":233161,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3844],"tags":[5632,19168,17387,665,70,413,22971,91411,5638,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-233160","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-astrophysics","9":"tag-galaxies","10":"tag-jet-propulsion-laboratory","11":"tag-open-science","12":"tag-science","13":"tag-space","14":"tag-spherex-spectro-photometer-for-the-history-of-the-universe-and-ices-explorer","15":"tag-the-search-for-life","16":"tag-the-universe","17":"tag-uk","18":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114786100975356808","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233160","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=233160"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233160\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/233161"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=233160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=233160"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=233160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}