Space telescopes·NASA

SPHEREx

ActiveLaunched in 2025·Earth orbit — all-sky survey

A small NASA telescope mapping the entire sky in infrared: 102 wavelengths, 450 million galaxies, to unlock the secrets of cosmic inflation and water in planet-forming nurseries.

Main objectives

Map the whole sky in 102 infrared bands.
Understand cosmic inflation through large-scale statistics.
Measure water ice in molecular clouds and protoplanetary disks.
Catalog 450 million galaxies and 100 million stars.

Did you know?

It scans the entire sky every 6 months in 102 infrared colors — like a family photo of the universe taken 4 times a year.

Timeline

Mar 11, 2025

Launch

Falcon 9 from Vandenberg, sharing the fairing with PUNCH.

May 01, 2025

Science operations begin

First 6-month all-sky survey started.

Aug 01, 2025

3I/ATLAS observation

The interstellar comet imaged in infrared by SPHEREx.

Nov 01, 2026

First annual data release

Public survey release at Caltech (IRSA).

Instruments

[02]

20 cm telescope

Three aluminum mirrors, passively cooled with frozen hydrogen

H2RG cameras

Six HgCdTe infrared detectors covering 0.75–5 µm

Specifications

dry_mass_kg590

manufacturerBall Aerospace / JPL

launch_vehicleFalcon 9 Block 5

Discoveries

[03]

DiscoveryMajor
SPHEREx image la comète interstellaire 3I/ATLAS
Premier spectre infrarouge complet de la troisième comète interstellaire découverte : mesure du CO et du CO2.
Aug 25, 2025NASA/SPHEREx ↗
Iconic imageMajor
3I/ATLAS observation
The interstellar comet imaged in infrared by SPHEREx.
Aug 01, 2025
MilestoneNotable
Science operations begin
First 6-month all-sky survey started.
May 01, 2025

Mission milestones

[01]

Milestone
Launch
Falcon 9 from Vandenberg, sharing the fairing with PUNCH.
Mar 11, 2025

Official sources

NASA SPHEREx↗Caltech IRSA↗