SPHEREx—launched on March 11, 2025—is the newest addition to NASA’s elite space telescope fleet. In its two-year baseline mission, it will survey the entire sky, producing a first-of-its-kind 3D spectroscopic map of the entire celestial sphere. Join us to hear from the mission’s instrument scientist, Caltech Research Scientist Phil Korngut, Ph.D., who will tell the tale of this new observatory’s development and implementation. With the first data already in hand, the team will use these measurements to study the history and evolution of galaxies, the first instants of the universe after the Big Bang, and the role that life-giving water ice plays in our own galaxy. You’ll see the first tantalizing images and results!
Dr. Korngut is part of the Observational Cosmology group at Caltech in Pasadena, CA as well as an affiliate of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. He obtained his doctorate in physics in 2011 from UPENN, where he developed a receiver based on superconducting detectors for the Green Bank Telescope. For his dissertation work, he used this novel camera to study shock waves in the superheated plasma of merging clusters of galaxies. Korngut has also developed and fielded NASA sounding rocket missions, including the CIBER series designed to study the extragalactic background light.
No tickets or reservations required.
This event is part of a monthly series of free astronomy talks presented by Santa Barbara’s astronomy club, the Santa Barbara Astronomical Unit (SBAU). Look for more talks and free Star Parties with the SBAU on the Museum’s astronomy calendar.
Questions? Contact Astronomy Programs Manager Ila Jade Komasa at
aWphZGVrb21hc2EgfCBzYm5hdHVyZTIgISBvcmc= or 805-682-4711 ext. 164.
Artwork of SPHEREx by NASA
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