Unveiling the Cosmos: SPHEREx's Colorful Sky Map

In 2025, NASA's SPHEREx telescope took off on a SpaceX rocket from California. By May, it was already busy collecting data. This telescope is special because it captures images in infrared light, which is invisible to us. It's like seeing the universe in a whole new light! SPHEREx stands for a mouthful, but it's basically a tool to study the universe's history. It orbits Earth quickly, taking snapshots of the sky. Over six months, it covers the entire sky, capturing data in 102 different infrared wavelengths. This is similar to what the James Webb Space Telescope does, but SPHEREx covers a much wider area. The new sky map from SPHEREx shows different cosmic objects emitting light at various wavelengths. Hot hydrogen gas appears blue, cosmic dust red, and stars in combinations of blue, green, and white. This reveals details that regular telescopes can't see.SPHEREx is different from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). While JWST focuses on small patches of the sky with high resolution, SPHEREx scans the entire sky quickly. It's like having 102 new maps of the sky, each with unique information. Over its two-year mission, SPHEREx will repeat its surveys to gather more data. One of SPHEREx's goals is to study the early universe. It aims to create a 3D map of hundreds of millions of galaxies to understand how the universe's structure formed. Additionally, it will examine interstellar clouds to learn about the ingredients for life. This could help us understand how life began and where it might exist.