University of Pennsylvania Astrophysics Seminar

SPHEREx, an upcoming NASA medium-class Explorer Mission, will perform the first all-sky near infrared spectral survey. With a targeted launch date in early 2025, SPHEREx will map the entire sky at 6.2 arcsec from 0.75 to 5μm with a spectral resolution R>35 and 5σ sensitivity AB>19 over the nominal two-year mission. We will use this data set to 1) study the cosmic inflation by mapping the large-scale distribution of galaxies; 2) measure the light produced by stars and galaxies over cosmic history; and 3) determine the abundance of interstellar water and organic ices available to proto-planetary systems. In this talk, I will give a summary of the SPHEREx instrument design, survey plan and the expected data product, and highlight the potential science cases that can be done with this full-sky legacy archive available to the community.