Paper 14145-25
Paper 14145-25
SPHEREx mission status after the first year of all-sky NIR spectroscopy
6 July 2026 • 13:00 - 13:20 CEST | Room B4-M3
Abstract
The SPHEREx space telescope is the newest NASA MIDEX mission, designed to study the Universe’s large-scale structure, probe the history of galaxy formation, and survey our Milky way for water and other biogenic ices. Full scale science operations began on May 1st, 2025 and two NIR spectroscopic surveys of the entire celestial sphere have been completed in the intervening year. In this update, we present the observatory’s operational status, instrumental performance and demonstrated sensitivity on-sky. The entirety of the spectral image data from these novel surveys will be made available to the community, with initial releases already available for public access.
Presenter
Phillip M. Korngut
Caltech (United States)
Phil Korngut is the SPHEREx instrument scientist and holds a research scientist position in the laboratory for observational cosmology at Caltech in Pasadena, CA. He obtained a PhD in 2011 from the University of Pennsylvania and a bachelors in 2005 from Oberlin College. He has developed numerous instruments including the MUSTANG array for the Green Bank Telescope and the CIBER series of sounding rocket experiments to study the extragalactic background light.