The SPHEREx Mission: an All-Sky Spectral Survey Like No Other

Since its flawless launch in March 2025, NASA's SPHEREx (the Spectrophotometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization, and Ices Explorer) mission has been carrying out a groundbreaking infrared spectral survey of the entire sky at 6" spatial resolution. The first full epoch of complete sky coverage has just been acquired. In this presentation I will describe how SPHEREx spectral images will inform three different science domains: our understanding of cosmic inflation, the nature of the infrared extragalactic background light, and the origins of biogenic molecules water ice in particular. I will share new wide-field images from the SPHEREx Ices Investigation being carried out at by a collaboration involving the Center for Astrophysics, IPAC, JPL, SNU, and KASI, and conclude by describing how the community can access SPHEREx data for their own science.

Biography: Astronomer Dr. Ashby is the current Chair of the Center for Astrophysics' Optical and Infrared Astronomy Division. His research focuses primarily on infrared surveys of different kinds. Until recently this was concerned with deep extragalactic surveys using NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, to better understand galaxy evolution over cosmic time. Currently, however, Dr. Ashby is a Co-Investigator with NASA's SPHEREx mission (due to launch in the spring of 2025) and, in that capacity, he is helping define the SPHEREx infrared spectroscopic survey for biogenic compounds in the Milky Way. From 2016 to 2023, Dr. Ashby was Co-Director of SAO's Astrophysics Research Experience for Undergraduates Site. (Credit: https://www.cfa.harvard.edu/people/matthew-ashby)