Latest news with #BethFabinsky
Express Tribune
07-04-2025
- Science
- Express Tribune
NASA's SPHEREx telescope captures first images, offering glimpse into the infrared universe
Launched on 11 March, the Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explorer—better known as SPHEREx—has now powered up its ultra-cold infrared detectors and begun its initial observations. PHOTO: NASA Listen to article NASA's new space telescope, SPHEREx, has successfully captured its first images from space, offering a striking early look at the cosmos and marking a major milestone in the mission's journey to explore the origins of the universe. Launched on 11 March, the Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explorer—better known as SPHEREx—has now powered up its ultra-cold infrared detectors and begun its initial observations. Though still uncalibrated, the first images from SPHEREx reveal a breathtaking view filled with stars and galaxies—more than 100,000 sources visible in each frame. Every SPHEREx exposure includes six images captured by its detectors, collectively covering a field about 20 times wider than the full Moon. 'This is the high point of spacecraft checkout; it's the thing we wait for,' said Beth Fabinsky, SPHEREx's deputy project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). 'There's still work to do, but this is the big payoff. And wow! Just wow!' Unlike visible light telescopes such as Hubble, SPHEREx detects infrared light, revealing phenomena invisible to the human eye. Each of the telescope's six detectors records light in 17 different wavelength bands—offering a total of 102 infrared hues. These variations allow astronomers to decode the chemical makeup of cosmic objects and estimate their distances. 'This data will allow us to study everything from galaxy formation to the origins of water,' explained Olivier Doré, SPHEREx project scientist at Caltech and JPL. 'Our spacecraft has opened its eyes on the universe. It's performing just as it was designed to.' The team has spent the past two weeks confirming the spacecraft's systems are functioning correctly and cooling the detectors to approximately –350°F (–210°C). This extreme cold is essential for capturing delicate infrared signals, which could otherwise be drowned out by thermal radiation. SPHEREx's mission includes mapping the full sky four times over two years. By using a method called spectroscopy, it will measure the light from hundreds of millions of stars and galaxies, potentially unlocking new information about: The large-scale structure of the universe The mysterious Epoch of Reionization The distribution of ices and organic molecules in our galaxy This includes investigating how elements like water, carbon dioxide, and methane—crucial for life—are distributed across interstellar dust. While telescopes like Hubble and the James Webb Space Telescope offer deep, focused views of specific regions, SPHEREx is a broad-survey instrument, designed to scan vast areas of space. Its wide-angle perspective will help identify promising targets for further investigation by more focused telescopes. 'Based on the images we are seeing, we can now say that the instrument team nailed it,' said Jamie Bock, SPHEREx principal investigator at Caltech and JPL. 'I'm rendered speechless.' The spacecraft was built by BAE Systems (formerly Ball Aerospace), with Caltech overseeing the integration of its scientific instruments. A team of scientists from 10 U.S. institutions, as well as South Korea and Taiwan, will lead the mission's data analysis. All findings will be processed and archived at Caltech's IPAC Infrared Science Archive, and made publicly available. SPHEREx is managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory for the agency's Astrophysics Division, with data expected to enhance our understanding of cosmic history and the conditions that led to life in the universe.
Ammon
02-04-2025
- Science
- Ammon
NASA's SPHEREx telescope 'opens its eyes on the universe', taking stunning debut image of 100,000 galaxies and stars
Ammon News - A new NASA space telescope has turned on its detectors for the first time, capturing its first light in images that contain tens of thousands of galaxies and stars. The Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization, and Ices Explorer (SPHEREx) arrived in orbit atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on March 11. The six released images, collected by the space telescope on March 27, were each snapped by three different detectors. The top three images span the telescope's complete field of view, and are captured again in the bottom three which are colored differently to represent varying ranges of infrared wavelengths. Within each image's full field of view — an area roughly 20 times wider than the full moon — roughly 100,000 light sources from stars, galaxies, and nebulas can be glimpsed. "Our spacecraft has opened its eyes on the universe," Olivier Doré, a SPHEREx project scientist at Caltech and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said in a statement. "It's performing just as it was designed to." Costing a total of $488 million to build and launch, the new telescope has been in development for roughly a decade and is set to map the universe by observing both optical and infrared light. It will orbit Earth 14.5 times a day, completing 11,000 orbits during its lifetime to filter infrared light from distant gas and dust clouds using a technique called spectroscopy. Once it is fully online in April, SPHEREX will scan the entire night sky a total of four times using 102 separate infrared color sensors, enabling it to collect data from more than 450 million galaxies during its planned two-year operation. This amounts to roughly 600 exposures a day, according to NASA. This dataset will give scientists key insights into some of the biggest questions in cosmology, enabling astronomers to study galaxies at various stages in their evolution; trace the ice floating in empty space to see how life may have begun; and even understand the period of rapid inflation the universe underwent immediately after the Big Bang. SPHEREx's wide panorama view makes it the perfect complement for the James Webb Space Telescope, flagging regions of interest for the latter to study with greater depth and resolution. After lofting it to space, NASA scientists and engineers have performed a nail-biting series of checks on the new telescope. This includes ensuring that its sensitive infrared equipment is cooling down to its final temperature of around minus 350 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 210 degrees Celsius) and that the telescope is set to the right focus — something that cannot be adjusted in space. Based on these stunning preliminary images, it appears that everything has worked out. "This is the high point of spacecraft checkout; it's the thing we wait for," Beth Fabinsky, SPHEREx deputy project manager at JPL, said in the statement. "There's still work to do, but this is the big payoff. And wow! Just wow!"
Yahoo
02-04-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
NASA's SPHEREx space telescope releases its first images
A NASA space telescope on a mission to map millions of galaxies has turned on its detectors for the first time, capturing images of tens of thousands of stars and galaxies. The SPHEREx, which is short for Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explorer, was launched on March 11. The new images, taken on March 27, confirm that all systems are "working as expected" and that the telescope is focused correctly, NASA said in a news release. The telescope's focus cannot be adjusted in space. The space agency released six images, each colored differently to represent a range of infrared wavelengths. Each image was taken by a different detector on the telescope, NASA said. All of the images show the same area of the sky, NASA said. The colorful images are flecked with bright spots, which NASA said are sources of light like stars or galaxies. Each image is expected to contain more than 100,000 detected light sources, the space agency said. "Our spacecraft has opened its eyes on the universe," said Olivier Doré, a SPHEREx project scientist at Caltech and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in the news release. "It's performing just as it was designed to." SPHEREx will begin routine science operations in late April, NASA said. At that time, the space telescope will begin taking about 600 exposures a day. The observatory is capable of detecting infrared light. Each six-image exposure captures up to 102 shades, NASA said. The color differences allow scientists to study the composition of objects or the distance to galaxies. Researchers will be able to study topics like the universe's physics and the origins of water in our galaxy, NASA said. The telescope is also capable of capturing "faint, distant galaxies." "This is the high point of spacecraft checkout; it's the thing we wait for," said Beth Fabinsky, SPHEREx deputy project manager at JPL, in the news release. "There's still work to do, but this is the big payoff. And wow! Just wow!" SPHEREx works differently than space telescopes like the Hubble and James Webb, NASA said. It takes a broader view of the sky than previous models, and will map the entire celestial sky four times over the next two years. That data will be combined with the results of the smaller telescopes to "give scientists a more robust understanding of our universe," NASA said. The space telescope is also expected to collect data on more than 450 million galaxies and more than 100 million stars in the Milky Way, NASA said. Democratic-backed candidate wins record-breaking Wisconsin Supreme Court seat Eric Adams corruption case dismissed with prejudice Los Angeles Kings push to bring more Latino kids into hockey
CBS News
02-04-2025
- Science
- CBS News
NASA's SPHEREx space telescope releases its first images on mission to map millions of galaxies
A NASA space telescope on a mission to map millions of galaxies has turned on its detectors for the first time, capturing images of tens of thousands of stars and galaxies. The SPHEREx , which is short for Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explorer, was launched on March 11. The new images, taken on March 27, confirm that all systems are "working as expected" and that the telescope is focused correctly, NASA said in a news release . The telescope's focus cannot be adjusted in space. The space agency released six images, each colored differently to represent a range of infrared wavelengths. Each image was taken by a different detector on the telescope, NASA said. All of the images show the same area of the sky, NASA said. The colorful images are flecked with bright spots, which NASA said are sources of light like stars or galaxies. Each image is expected to contain more than 100,000 detected light sources, the space agency said. "Our spacecraft has opened its eyes on the universe," said Olivier Doré, a SPHEREx project scientist at Caltech and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in the news release. "It's performing just as it was designed to." SPHEREx will begin routine science operations in late April, NASA said. At that time, the space telescope will begin taking about 600 exposures a day. The observatory is capable of detecting infrared light. Each six-image exposure captures up to 102 shades, NASA said. The color differences allow scientists to study the composition of objects or the distance to galaxies. Researchers will be able to study topics like the universe's physics and the origins of water in our galaxy, NASA said. The telescope is also capable of capturing "faint, distant galaxies." "This is the high point of spacecraft checkout; it's the thing we wait for," said Beth Fabinsky, SPHEREx deputy project manager at JPL, in the news release. "There's still work to do, but this is the big payoff. And wow! Just wow!" SPHEREx works differently than space telescopes like the Hubble and James Webb, NASA said. It takes a broader view of the sky than previous models, and will map the entire celestial sky four times over the next two years. That data will be combined with the results of the smaller telescopes to "give scientists a more robust understanding of our universe," NASA said. The space telescope is also expected to collect data on more than 450 million galaxies and more than 100 million stars in the Milky Way, NASA said .
Yahoo
24-02-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
NASA's 'SPHEREx' infrared space telescope is launching this week. Here's why it's a big deal
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Earth will gain a new robotic companion this week. NASA's latest space telescope, SPHEREx — short for Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explorer — is set to lift off atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on Friday (Feb. 28) from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. The $488 million mission is designed to map the entire sky in 3D, in wavelengths invisible to the human eye. The two-year effort aims to gather a big-picture view of more than 450 million galaxies and over 100 million stars in our home galaxy, the Milky Way, a comprehensive catalog of all the objects radiating in the universe by measuring the glow from hundreds of millions of galaxies, including those that are too small or distant to be seen by other telescopes, according to NASA. Scientists say the treasure trove of data will answer fundamental questions that can only be addressed by examining the universe from a broad, all-encompassing perspective. These include why the large-scale structure of the universe appears as it does, how galaxies form and evolve and the origins of water and other key ingredients for life in our galaxy. Related: NASA's new SPHEREx space telescope to launch in February — it can do what the JWST can't "SPHEREx is a testament to doing big science with a small telescope," Beth Fabinsky, the deputy project manager of SPHEREx at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, told reporters last month. If all goes to plan, once in Earth orbit, SPHEREx will carry out a series of precise maneuvers such that it images particular pockets of the sky for a few days at a time, a cadence that will allow the probe to map the entire sky twice a year, according to the mission description. "It weighs about 1,100 pounds [500 kilograms], so a little less than a grand piano, and uses about 270 to 300 watts of power — less than a refrigerator," Fabinsky said during the press briefing last month. "It produces more power than it needs using a thick solar array, very much like one you might have on the roof of your house." A key science goal of the mission is to better understand the elusive physics that propelled the nearly instantaneous ballooning of space within the first second after the Big Bang — a phenomenon known as cosmic inflation. To do so, SPHEREx will catalog the distribution of hundreds of millions of galaxies, scientists say, with an eye toward recording the statistical distribution of ripples — the tiny variations in the distribution of matter that were amplified during inflation — that are imprinted in the large-scale structure of the universe and continue to influence it. Related Stories: — SpaceX launch of NASA's new 3D-sky-mapping satellite set for February 2025 — Are James Webb Space Telescope images really so colorful? — James Webb Space Telescope sees the infrared skeleton of a galaxy (image) SPHEREx is equipped with a prism-like spectrophotometer that splits light into 102 colors, enabling the probe to identify the unique signatures of basic life molecules frozen in interstellar clouds. By cataloging the location and abundance of these icy molecules, scientists hope to gain a deeper understanding of how the key ingredients for life as we know it — including hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, carbon, and sulfur — are distributed in interstellar space and eventually delivered to regions where planets form. "I expect the unexpected to come out of the data for this mission," James Fanson, the project manager of SPHEREx, told NPR. SPHEREx isn't launching alone. The space telescope is sharing the Falcon 9 with another NASA mission, called PUNCH ("Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere"), which will use four satellites to study the heliosphere, the huge bubble of magnetic fields and charged particles that the sun blows around itself. These spacecraft "will make global, 3D observations of the entire inner heliosphere to learn how the sun's corona becomes the solar wind," NASA officials wrote in a mission description. (The corona is the sun's wispy, blisteringly hot outer atmosphere.)
