NASA has released the first images taken by the new SPHEREx infrared observatory. They confirm that the instrument operates as expected, and that it is ready to carry out the science program.
Main tasks of the SPHEREx telescope
SPHEREx was launched on March 11. The 178-kilogram vehicle is equipped with an infrared telescope with a 20-centimeter mirror. Its key difference from the existing James Webb mirror, which is orders of magnitude larger, is the field of view. SPHEREx is capable of observing an area of sky equivalent to 20 full moons.
As a result, SPHEREx will be able to determine the exact position of 450 million galaxies in the nearby Universe. Their large-scale distribution was influenced by an event that occurred nearly 14 billion years ago known as inflation. As a result, the Universe radically increased in size in just a trillion-trillion of a second after the Big Bang.
But SPHEREx will observe more than just distant galaxies. It will also explore our Milky Way in search of hidden reservoirs of frozen water ice and other molecules, such as carbon dioxide, that are essential for life as we know it. In addition, astronomers expect to learn more about the icy objects that lurk on the outskirts of our Solar System. This may shed light on the question of how water got to Earth.
First images of SPHEREx
The NASA-published image was taken by SPHEREx on March 27. It consists of six separate images — one for each detector of the apparatus. The top three show the same area of the sky as the bottom three.
Each of SPHEREx’s six infrared detectors can capture 17 unique wavelength ranges for a total of 102 hues in each exposure. By analyzing them, it is possible to determine the composition of an object or the distance to a galaxy. Using this data, scientists will be able to study subjects ranging from the physics that governed the Universe less than a second after its birth to the origin of water in our galaxy.
Although the new images have not been calibrated and ready for scientific use, they allow us to evaluate the capabilities of SPHEREx. Each bright spot is a light source, such as a star or galaxy. Each image is expected to contain more than 100,000 detected sources. The images also show that the telescope is properly focused. Focusing is done completely before launch and cannot be adjusted in space.
SPHEREx is expected to begin its science program in late April. It will do about 600 exposures each day.
According to NASA
