NASA SPHEREx captures first light in space ahead of galaxy survey
by Clarence Oxford
Los Angeles CA (SPX) Apr 03, 2025
NASA’s SPHEREx mission (Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explorer) has begun its in-space operations with a successful activation of its detectors. Launched on March 11, the telescope returned its first images from orbit, verifying that all instruments are functioning correctly.
Though still in an uncalibrated state and not yet viable for scientific use, these initial observations provide a preview of SPHEREx’s expansive sky coverage. Every bright speck in the images represents a star or galaxy, with each frame revealing more than 100,000 such sources.
Each SPHEREx exposure comprises six images, corresponding to its six detectors. The top and bottom trios of images cover the same area of the sky, illustrating the observatory’s complete field of view, which spans a region roughly 20 times the width of the full Moon. Once full operations commence in late April, SPHEREx will collect around 600 exposures daily.
“Our spacecraft has opened its eyes on the universe,” said Olivier Dore, SPHEREx project scientist at Caltech and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). “It’s performing just as it was designed to.”
Designed to detect infrared wavelengths beyond human vision, SPHEREx renders its early images using visible colors assigned to the different infrared bands. Each of the six detectors covers 17 separate wavelength channels, amounting to 102 distinct color bands per exposure.
This method of spectral color mapping enables researchers to deduce a celestial object’s composition and estimate its distance from Earth. Such data will allow the mission to explore cosmic phenomena ranging from early-universe physics to the origins of interstellar water.
“This is the high point of spacecraft checkout; it’s the thing we wait for,” said Beth Fabinsky, deputy project manager for SPHEREx at JPL. “There’s still work to do, but this is the big payoff. And wow! Just wow!”
Over the last two weeks, JPL teams have completed extensive system checks, confirming all subsystems are nominal. Meanwhile, SPHEREx’s sensitive detectors have been cooling to their target operating temperature of about -350 degrees Fahrenheit (-210 degrees Celsius), essential for optimal infrared detection. The initial imagery also confirms the telescope’s focus, which was fixed pre-launch and cannot be adjusted once in orbit.
“Based on the images we are seeing, we can now say that the instrument team nailed it,” stated Jamie Bock, principal investigator of SPHEREx at Caltech and JPL.
Unlike focused observatories such as Hubble or the James Webb Space Telescope, SPHEREx is designed for wide-field surveys. Its role is to capture broad cosmic snapshots that complement detailed studies from other instruments.
Over its two-year primary mission, SPHEREx will scan the entire sky four times using a technique known as spectroscopy. By analyzing light from hundreds of millions of cosmic sources across more wavelengths than any previous all-sky survey, it will offer unprecedented data.
Incoming light is divided along two optical paths, each terminating in a line of three detectors. Each detector is topped with a specialized color filter that gradually shifts which wavelengths it permits from top to bottom, functioning like a multicolored gradient rather than a single-tone lens.
“I’m rendered speechless,” said Jim Fanson, SPHEREx project manager at JPL. “There was an incredible human effort to make this possible, and our engineering team did an amazing job getting us to this point.”
Related Links
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