SphereX is the first
all sky near-infrared spectroscopic mission.
We will capture the entire sky four times
in almost 100 different colors of near-infrared.
We will create a legacy catalog that astronomers will use for decades.
And we will use that data set to answer three fundamental science questions
about cosmology, galaxy formation and ices
throughout the solar system.
Some astronomy missions
look at specific objects that are of interest to astronomers.
But some astronomy missions are surveys,
and many of them are all sky surveys.
And so when they are looking out at the sky in whatever colors
their sensors or detectors are searching for,
they look at every part of the sky,
the entire celestial sphere and SphereX is one of those surveys.
In fact, SphereX will cover the entire sky four times, not just once.
And every time we cover the sky.
It takes about six months.
Because SphereX is in an orbit near sunrise and sunset.
And so it's always looking out at the edge of the Earth, at the path
going forward for the Earth and the path from which Earth is moving away.
And if you imagine that ring around dawn and dusk spinning over the course
of six months, that ring spins
180 degrees and makes a complete sphere.
All sky means that
our mission will look at every point in the sky.
In fact, one of the requirements of our mission is
that we do have that nearly full coverage of the entire universe.
So there really shouldn't be any holes,
where we miss taking exposures.
We should have coverage of every piece of sky
you could look at from Earth, from any position on Earth.
There have been many on sky surveys
before conducted by, the astronomy community.
Some of them are ground surveys taken by telescopes.
Obviously on the ground and covering, the sky around the Earth.
Some, especially those in the infrared, are space surveys because it's very hard
to detect infrared light through the Earth's atmosphere.
The space surveys conducted for infrared wavelengths
go back to the 80s with IRAS
and continue through the 2000s with WISE.
And now SphereX will join that group of missions.
But SphereX is unique because it covers
the entire sky, not just in one or a few colors,
but in nearly 100 colors of near infrared light.
Well,
infrared isn't the only important wavelength of light,
but depending on what your science objectives are,
it may be the color that is of interest for the area of research.
Astronomers are conducting for a given mission
and for SphereX with its three science goals.
Of cosmology and understanding
the origins of the universe and inflationary theory.
Galaxy formation and ices
that are distributed in our solar system.
The near infrared wavelengths that we look for
are the perfect wavelengths to see,
effects that those theories require.
Well,
the first thing to note is that our survey will basically capture
every type of objects, from stars to asteroids, even some satellite tracks.
But most certainly galaxies.
And the,
background of, space,
the diffuse light that's left over from the early universe
is one of the main things that we will also be observing.
However, the reason why our
legacy catalog will be so useful to the astronomical community
is because we will really see anything that is observable in near infrared,
and that's a lot of things.
I love surveys, and I love surveys
because rather than looking at any particular objects,
I love getting statistics about the universe, because I think that
gives you a more profound understanding of what is going on in the universe.
And I love the big numbers that surveys acquire
and the numbers of exposures, even the volume of the data set.
I think that's really exciting.
The great thing about SphereX
is not only will we view the entire sky four times, but we will see it
in nearly 100 near-infrared colors, and that's really never been done before.
So I think that's even more exciting that we will have so much great data
in so many different colors.
Is something to really look forward to.
Yeah.
So so this spacecraft is not very large.
However, it has an extremely large field of view.
And so it's capturing a large piece of sky every time it takes an exposure.
And it's doing this over and over again.
Almost every couple of minutes with a few gaps now
and then for other things that need to be done.
And it's doing this for six months as the earth moves
halfway around its revolution around the sun.
And in doing that, we get a full sky coverage,
by looking out from the Earth and orbiting
and taking these exposures every two minutes.
And so by doing this four times or two
years, we are able to get four full sky coverage.