Overview:
SPHEREx is a NASA Medium Explorer mission designed to 1) constrain the physics of inflation by measuring its imprints on the three-dimensional large-scale distribution of matter, 2) trace the history of galactic light production through a deep multi-band measurement of large-scale clustering, and 3) investigate the abundance and composition of water and biogenic ices in the early phases of star and planetary disk formation. SPHEREx will obtain near-infrared 0.75-5.0 um spectra every 6" over the entire sky. It implements a simple instrument design with a single observing mode to map the entire sky four times during its nominal 25-month mission. SPHEREx will also have strong scientific synergies with other missions and observatories, resulting in a rich legacy archive of spectra that will bear on numerous scientific investigations. The mission PI is Jamie Bock (Caltech). SPHEREx launched at 8:10 p.m. PDT on March 11, 2025.
The SPHEREx Science Data Center (SSDC), based at IPAC, has primary responsibility for reducing the data for Science Team and community use and passing the data to IRSA for the public archive. The SSDC implements and operates data processing modules for Levels 1-3 and deliver public data products to the archive.
IRSA will provide a dedicated interface for SPHEREx data, which will include standard search, retrieval, and visualization capabilities. In addition, IRSA will host SPHEREx-specific search, retrieval and analysis tools. Some of these tools will be available via IRSA’s web interface allowing integration with all other products served by IRSA. These tools are:
Spectrophotometry Tool: creates spectra at a user-specified position using the same algorithm as the pipeline.
LVF Image Cutout Tool: allows users to make cutouts, without resampling, from LVF spectral images.
Custom Mosaic Tool: creates cube or single FITS image, with user-specified output bands.
In addition to the lower level products , IRSA will release higher-level scientific products generated by the three main science investigations. These products will also be available at IRSA and include:
An all-sky galaxy redshift catalog and associated clustering statistics, and likelihood.
Deep broad-band mosaic maps of our deep fields, associated statistics, and likelihood.
A catalog of Interstellar Ices absorption features.
Dimensions of IPAC explores the wide spectrum of activities happening at IPAC, and here we highlight IPAC's role in the SPHEREx mission. Written and directed by Chiara Villanueva.
