SPHEREx (NASA)
Launched 11 March 2025, NASA's SPHEREx maps the whole sky in 102 infrared colors and finished its first all-sky map in 2025 (NASA JPL).
Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech (PIA26537).
Last reviewed: 2 sources cited
Explain Like I'm 10
- SPHEREx is a space An instrument that collects light (or other energy) to see faraway things more clearly. Glossary that takes pictures of the whole sky.
- It sees 102 colors of light that our eyes cannot see.
- Those colors show where frozen water hides in space.
The Five W's of SPHEREx (NASA)
What
A space telescope that maps the entire sky in 102 A kind of light our eyes can't see that we feel as heat. Special cameras use it to see warm objects and gases. Glossary wavelengths.
When
Launched 11 March 2025; its first all-sky map was completed in December 2025.
Where
Earth The curved path an object takes as it travels around a planet, moon or star, like a satellite circling Earth. Glossary, looking out at the whole sky.
Source: NASA Science, SPHEREx
Why
Its colors reveal water ice and other frozen ingredients for life in clouds where stars form.
Impact Statement
Agency solution · active
SPHEREx's all-sky map shows stars, hot hydrogen gas and cosmic dust, and other wavelengths trace water, A gas that people and animals breathe out and that burning fuel releases. Plants take it in, and too much of it in the air warms the planet. Glossary and carbon monoxide ices across our galaxy.
Source: NASA JPL, SPHEREx completes first cosmic map
For Further Information: NASA JPL, SPHEREx completes first cosmic map
SPHEREx maps the whole sky in 102 infrared colors to find frozen water in space.
How This Saves People & the Planet
For People
Its free maps are a resource for astronomers everywhere.
Source: NASA Science, SPHEREx
For Nature
Mapping where water ice exists in space helps explain where the water on planets like Earth came from.
Want to go deeper? NASA JPL has the full SPHEREx story.
For Further InformationRelated Solutions
More solutions like this one, matched by meaning.
For Teachers
Discussion questions
- What is SPHEREx (NASA), and what problem does it help solve?
- Who is behind SPHEREx (NASA), and where does the work happen?
- How does SPHEREx (NASA) help both people and nature? Use one fact from this page.
Sources are listed with each fact in the Five W's above.
Cite This Page
APA
Saving Planets. (n.d.). SPHEREx (NASA). https://www.savingplanets.com/SPHEREx.html
MLA
"SPHEREx (NASA)." Saving Planets, https://www.savingplanets.com/SPHEREx.html.