NASA’s SPHEREx telescope could give scientists a better understanding of the universe. (Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)
We’re getting a better glimpse of the cosmos soon! The SPHEREx (Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization, and Ices Explorer) will map the sky in infrared light. All collected data can give astronomers insight into a cosmic phenomenon called inflation, the Milky Way galaxy’s ingredients of life, and more. NASA plans to launch SPHEREx on February 27th, 2025, setting the stage for a new, exciting era of space exploration.
SPHEREx features a spectrophotometer as the primary instrument. It’s designed to observe inflation and other cosmic phenomenon. The instrument, featuring a linear variable filter, will survey the entire sky every six months in 102 color bands and measure near-infrared spectra from 0.75-5.0 micrometers. With the spectrophotometer, SPHEREx probes the statistical distribution of inflationary ripples by measuring the large-scale 3D distribution of galaxies. This is done by measuring galaxy redshifts over a large cosmological volume at low redshifts, producing the largest ever 3D map of galaxies. Scientists can then gain a better understanding of how light and cosmic objects arrived at their current locations after the Big Bang.
SPHEREx employs detector filters to conduct spectroscopy, allowing scientists to see infrared wavelengths emitted by galaxies or stars. (Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)
It even comes with a triple mirror design containing a 20 cm effective aperture and a 60 cm focal length. With the 3.5° x 11.3° field of view, the telescope effectively scans the entire sky. Overall, SPHEREx can map over 450 million galaxies, including some over 10 billion light years away. This also counts the galaxies that are too faint, small, diffuse, or distant to study with other telescopes.
SPHEREx also detects the building blocks of life, including water and carbon dioxide, as starlight passes through molecular clouds. For this purpose, it uses a focal plane with two mosaics of three 2k x 2k HgCdTe detector arrays split by a dichroic beam splitter for simultaneous imaging. With this setup, incoming light is separated by the beam splitter into two beams based on wavelength. Those beams then pass into a mosaic of three 2k x 2k HgCdTe detector arrays, which are set behind linear variable filters to enable the measurement of varying light wavelengths across the array.
“The mission will pinpoint the location and abundance of these icy compounds in our galaxy, giving researchers a better sense of their availability in the raw materials for newly forming planets,” says NASA.
Additionally, SPHEREx is expected to determine the best areas for other telescopes, including the James Webb, to observe. The telescope can’t do it all alone, and it’s meant to work with other telescopes to investigate cosmic objects across differing wavelengths of light.
This cone-shaped telescope features a passive cooling system with three V-groove radiators, keeping the telescope’s temperature below 80 K (-315°F). It also ensures the focal plane’s temperature stays below 60 K (-351°F) for precise infrared observations with little thermal noise. With the three cone-shaped photon shields, the telescope is always protected against heat from the sun and the earth.
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