Photo credit: science.nasa.gov
On April 22, members of the newly inaugurated SPHEREx (Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explorer) mission team took part in a ceremonial ringing of the closing bell at the New York Stock Exchange. This event highlighted the mission’s significance and public outreach.
Michael Thelen, the flight system manager for SPHEREx at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), participated in ringing the bell alongside other team members from both JPL, which oversees the mission, and BAE Systems Inc., the organization responsible for constructing the telescope and spacecraft bus.
Launched on March 11 from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, the SPHEREx observatory is poised to revolutionize our understanding of the cosmos. Utilizing 102 color filters, SPHEREx will execute a comprehensive survey of the entire sky with unprecedented speed. This will enable the collection of crucial data on hundreds of millions of galaxies and will serve as a complement to findings from more focused telescopes, such as NASA’s Hubble and James Webb space telescopes. The mission aims to address fundamental inquiries in astrophysics, including the conditions immediately following the Big Bang, the processes behind galaxy formation and evolution, and the origins and distribution of vital elements like water that are essential for life within our galaxy.
Additional Insights on SPHEREx
SPHEREx is part of NASA’s Astrophysics Division within the Science Mission Directorate, with management carried out by JPL. The construction of the telescope and spacecraft was undertaken by BAE Systems (previously Ball Aerospace). A diverse team of scientists from ten institutions in the United States and South Korea will handle the scientific analysis of the data collected by SPHEREx. The processing and archival of the data will occur at IPAC at Caltech, which administers JPL on behalf of NASA, with the mission’s principal investigator located at Caltech and holding a joint position at JPL. Importantly, the dataset produced by SPHEREx will be made available to the public, promoting broader engagement and utilization of the findings.
For further details about the SPHEREx mission, please visit:
Media Inquiries
Alise Fisher
NASA Headquarters, Washington
202-358-2546
alise.m.fisher@nasa.gov
Calla Cofield
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California
626-808-2469
calla.e.cofield@jpl.nasa.gov
Source
science.nasa.gov