NASA’s upcoming SPHEREx mission will be able to scan the entire sky every six months and create a map of the universe that looks like no other before. Scheduled to launch in April 2025 at the latest, it will explore what happened in the first second after the Big Bang, how galaxies form and evolve, and the predominance of life-forming molecules, such as water, locked in like ice inside. us. galaxy. Achieving these goals will require state-of-the-art technology, and NASA this month approved final designs for all of the observatory’s components. There is a long way to go from the design of a spacecraft to its launch and operation. The main elements of NASA’s SPHEREx spacecraft, which will seek to answer major questions about the universe, are shown in these images, in rough form (this image) and now more fully (below). Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech “We’re in the transition from doing things with computer models to doing things with real stuff,” said Allen Farrington, SPHEREx project director at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, which manages the mission. “The design for the spacecraft, as it stands, has been confirmed. We have shown that it is possible down to the smallest detail. So now we can really start building and assembling things. “ There is a long way to go from the design of a spacecraft to its launch and operation. The main elements of NASA’s SPHEREx spacecraft, which will seek to answer major questions about the universe, are shown in these images, in rough form (above) and now more fully (this image). Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech To answer big questions about the universe, scientists have to look at the sky in different ways. Many telescopes, such as NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, are designed to focus on individual stars, galaxies, or other cosmic objects and to study them in detail. But SPHEREx (which means Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explorer) belongs to another class of space telescopes that quickly observe large parts of the sky, exploring many objects in a short time. SPHEREx will scan over 99% of the sky every six months. In contrast, Hubble has observed about 0.1% of the sky in more than 30 years of operation. Although research telescopes such as SPHEREx cannot see objects with the same level of detail as targeted observatories, they can answer questions about the typical properties of these objects throughout the universe. NASA’s SPHEREx mission will scan the entire sky in 97 color zones, creating a map that will benefit astronomers around the world. This video explains the three key scientific topics that SPHEREx will explore: cosmic inflation, the evolution of galaxies, and interstellar ice. Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech For example, NASA’s recently launched James Webb Space Telescope will target individual exoplanets (planets outside our solar system) by measuring their size, temperature, weather patterns and makeup. But are exoplanets formed, on average, in life-friendly environments as we know them? With SPHEREx, scientists will measure the prevalence of life-sustaining materials, such as water found in icy granules in galactic clouds that give birth to new stars and their planetary systems. Astronomers believe that water in Earth’s oceans, which is believed to be essential for the beginning of life on Earth, originally came from such interstellar material. “It’s the difference between meeting a few individuals and taking a census and learning about the population as a whole,” said Beth Fabinsky, SPHEREx Deputy Project Manager at JPL. “Both types of studies are important and complement each other. “But there are some questions that can only be answered through this census.” SPHEREx and Webb differ not only in their approach to the study of the sky but also in their physical parameters. The Webb is the largest telescope ever flown in space, with a 21.3-foot (6.5-meter) primary mirror for capturing higher-resolution images than any other space telescope in history. The observatory protects its sensitive instruments from the glare of the Sun with a sun protection that is as big as a tennis court. The SPHEREx, on the other hand, has an 8-inch primary mirror and a sunscreen that is just 10.5 feet (3.2 meters) in diameter. But both observatories will collect infrared light – wavelengths beyond the range that the human eye can detect. Infrared radiation is sometimes called thermal radiation because it is emitted by hot objects, which is why it is used in night vision equipment. The two telescopes will also use a technique called spectroscopy to refract infrared light at individual wavelengths or colors, just as a prism refracts sunlight into its component colors. Spectroscopy is what allows both SPHEREx and Webb to detect what an object is made of, because individual chemicals absorb and radiate specific wavelengths of light. In order to answer big picture questions, the SPHEREx team first had to answer more practical questions, such as whether the onboard instrument could survive in space and whether all its components could be packaged together and function as a system. . Last month, the team’s final designs were approved by NASA, a move the organization calls critical design, or CDR. This marks an important milestone for the mission on the way to launch. “COVID continues to be a major challenge for us in developing new space projects. “Everything the country went through last year, from supply chain disruptions to working at home with children, we have gone through as well,” said James Bock, lead researcher at SPHEREx at JPL and Caltech in Pasadena, California. . “It’s really incredible to be part of a team that has handled these difficulties with enthusiasm and a seemingly unlimited supply of determination.” More about shipping SPHEREx is managed by JPL for NASA’s Science Mission in Washington. The mission’s lead researcher is based at Caltech, which manages JPL for NASA and will also develop the payload in collaboration with JPL. Ball Aerospace in Boulder, Colorado will supply the spacecraft. The Korean Institute of Astronomy and Space Science (KASI) is an instrument and science partner for the mission. The data will be processed and archived at IPAC at Caltech. The SPHEREx scientific team includes members from 10 institutions from the USA and South Korea.
