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The biggest threat to Chernobyl is no longer radiation
When a naked mole rat queen dies, that usually means war—but not for this colony
When their queen dies, naked mole rat females usually wage bloody battles of succession. But peace may be possible, a new study suggests
See the Moon Hide Regulus, the Stellar Heart of the Lion
Watch Regulus disappear and reappear before your eyes during its last North American occultation in the current cycle.
The post See the Moon Hide Regulus, the Stellar Heart of the Lion appeared first on Sky & Telescope.
Planetary Exploration With Four-Legged Rovers Carrying Only Two Instruments
European researchers tested four-legged semi-autonomous rovers that carry only two instruments. These capable and agile robots could be part of the future exploration of Mars and the Moon. Their autonomy means they can do more with fewer instructions.
Largest ever map of universe captures 47 million galaxies and quasars
Largest ever map of universe captures 47 million galaxies and quasars
Neanderthal infants were enormous compared with modern humans
Neanderthal infants were enormous compared with modern humans
2026 NSTA Hyperwall Schedule
2 min read
2026 NSTA Hyperwall ScheduleNASA Science at NSTA Hyperwall Schedule, April 16-18, 2026
Join NASA in the Exhibit Hall (Booth #1265) for Hyperwall Storytelling by NASA experts. Full Hyperwall Agenda below.
THURSDAY, APRIL 16
11:00 AM Teaching Space Weather in the Artemis Mission Era Christina Milotte 11:15 AM 5E StoryMaps using NASA Resources Tina HarteBallinger 11:30 AM Growing Beyond Earth: A Partnership Between
Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden & NASA Amy Padolf 11:45 AM Learn Science by Doing Science:
Real NASA Research That Your Class Can Do Today Sarah Kirn 12:00 PM Unlock NASA’s Eyes and Inspire the Scientists of Tomorrow Jason Craig 12:15 PM Access NASA Earth Data for your Class Angela Rizzi 12:30 PM Solar System Treks George Chang 12:45 PM Earth in Motion: How the NISAR Satellite
Mission will Transform Our View of the Planet Erika Podest 1:30 PM Differentiated NASA Earth Data Analysis and Interpretation Angela Rizzi 1:45 PM Roman Space Telescope and Webb Space Telescope Begoña Vila 2:00 PM Earth in Motion: How the NISAR Satellite
Mission will Transform Our View of the Planet Erika Podest 2:15 PM Solar System Treks George Chang 2:30 PM Unlock NASA’s Eyes and Inspire the Scientists of Tomorrow Jason Craig 2:45 PM Teaching Space Weather in the Artemis Mission Era Christina Milotte 3:00 PM Earth in Motion: How the NISAR Satellite Mission will Transform Our View of the Planet Erika Podest 3:45 PM Learn Science by Doing Science:
Real NASA Research That Your Class Can Do Today Sarah Kirn
FRIDAY, APRIL 17
11:00 AM NASA Solar System Ambassador Program Sarah Marcotte 11:15 AM Growing Beyond Earth: A Partnership BetweenFairchild Tropical Botanic Garden & NASA Amy Padolf 11:30 AM Access NASA Earth Data for your Class Angela Rizzi 11:45 AM Roman Space Telescope and Webb Space Telescope Begoña Vila 12:00 PM Learn Science by Doing Science:
Real NASA Research That Your Class Can Do Today Sarah Kirn 12:15 PM Teaching Space Weather in the Artemis Mission Era Christina Milotte 12:30 PM 5E StoryMaps using NASA Resources Tina Harte Ballinger 1:30 PM Growing Beyond Earth: A Partnership Between
Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden & NASA Amy Padolf 1:45 PM Learn Science by Doing Science:
Real NASA Research That Your Class Can Do Today Sarah Kirn 2:00 PM Roman Space Telescope and Webb Space Telescope Begoña Vila 2:15 PM NASA Solar System Ambassador Program Sarah Marcotte
2026 NSTA Hyperwall Schedule
2 min read
2026 NSTA Hyperwall ScheduleNASA Science at NSTA Hyperwall Schedule, April 16-18, 2026
Join NASA in the Exhibit Hall (Booth #1265) for Hyperwall Storytelling by NASA experts. Full Hyperwall Agenda below.
THURSDAY, APRIL 16
11:00 AM Teaching Space Weather in the Artemis Mission Era Christina Milotte 11:15 AM 5E StoryMaps using NASA Resources Tina HarteBallinger 11:30 AM Growing Beyond Earth: A Partnership Between
Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden & NASA Amy Padolf 11:45 AM Learn Science by Doing Science:
Real NASA Research That Your Class Can Do Today Sarah Kirn 12:00 PM Unlock NASA’s Eyes and Inspire the Scientists of Tomorrow Jason Craig 12:15 PM Access NASA Earth Data for your Class Angela Rizzi 12:30 PM Solar System Treks George Chang 12:45 PM Earth in Motion: How the NISAR Satellite
Mission will Transform Our View of the Planet Erika Podest 1:30 PM Differentiated NASA Earth Data Analysis and Interpretation Angela Rizzi 1:45 PM Roman Space Telescope and Webb Space Telescope Begoña Vila 2:00 PM Earth in Motion: How the NISAR Satellite
Mission will Transform Our View of the Planet Erika Podest 2:15 PM Solar System Treks George Chang 2:30 PM Unlock NASA’s Eyes and Inspire the Scientists of Tomorrow Jason Craig 2:45 PM Teaching Space Weather in the Artemis Mission Era Christina Milotte 3:00 PM Earth in Motion: How the NISAR Satellite Mission will Transform Our View of the Planet Erika Podest 3:45 PM Learn Science by Doing Science:
Real NASA Research That Your Class Can Do Today Sarah Kirn
FRIDAY, APRIL 17
11:00 AM NASA Solar System Ambassador Program Sarah Marcotte 11:15 AM Growing Beyond Earth: A Partnership BetweenFairchild Tropical Botanic Garden & NASA Amy Padolf 11:30 AM Access NASA Earth Data for your Class Angela Rizzi 11:45 AM Roman Space Telescope and Webb Space Telescope Begoña Vila 12:00 PM Learn Science by Doing Science:
Real NASA Research That Your Class Can Do Today Sarah Kirn 12:15 PM Teaching Space Weather in the Artemis Mission Era Christina Milotte 12:30 PM 5E StoryMaps using NASA Resources Tina Harte Ballinger 1:30 PM Growing Beyond Earth: A Partnership Between
Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden & NASA Amy Padolf 1:45 PM Learn Science by Doing Science:
Real NASA Research That Your Class Can Do Today Sarah Kirn 2:00 PM Roman Space Telescope and Webb Space Telescope Begoña Vila 2:15 PM NASA Solar System Ambassador Program Sarah Marcotte
NASA needs nuclear power for its moon base. Here’s the White House plan to get it
If the U.S. is ever to set up a permanent outpost on the moon, it will need nuclear power. The White House just released a road map to get it as soon as 2028
NASA’s SPHEREx Mission Maps Water Ice Throughout Cygnus X
NASA/JPL-Caltech/IPAC/Hora et al. Photojournal Navigation Downloads NASA’s SPHEREx Mission Maps Water Ice Throughout Cygnus X
JPEG (1.99 MB)
PIA26748 Figure A
JPEG (6.64 MB)
Description
An observation made by NASA’s SPHEREx (Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization, and Ices Explorer) shows the chemical signatures of water ice (shown in bright blue) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (orange) in Cygnus X, one of the most active and turbulent regions of star birth in our Milky Way galaxy.
One of several maps of molecular clouds made by SPHEREx, this observation is detailed in a study published April 15, 2026, in The Astrophysical Journal. The study supports the hypothesis that interstellar ice forms on the surface of tiny dust particles no larger than particles found in the smoke from a candle. The findings show the densest regions of ice coincide with the densest regions of dust, and the dust shields the ice from the intense ultraviolet radiation emitted by newborn stars.
Figure A
Figure A shows the same region, but in three different wavelengths assigned the colors green, blue, and red. This SPHEREx observation highlights the dark, dusty lanes that protect the water molecules from the intense radiation generated by newborn stars.
Although space telescopes such as NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope and the agency’s retired Spitzer have detected water, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, and other icy molecules throughout our galaxy, the SPHEREx observatory is the first infrared mission specifically designed to find such molecules over the entire sky, via the mission’s large-scale spectral survey.
Managed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, the SPHEREx observatory launchedMarch 11, 2025, and has the unique ability to see the sky in 102 colors, each representing a different wavelength of infrared light that offers distinctive information about galaxies, stars, planet-forming regions, and other cosmic features. By late 2025, SPHEREx had completed the first of four all-sky infrared maps of the universe, charting the positions of hundreds of millions of galaxies in 3D to help answer major questions about the cosmos, including those about the origins of water and life.
The mission is managed by JPL for the agency’s Astrophysics Division within the Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The telescope and the spacecraft bus were built by BAE Systems in Boulder, Colorado. The science analysis of the SPHEREx data is being conducted by a team of scientists at 13 institutions across the U.S. and in South Korea and Taiwan, led by Principal Investigator Jamie Bock, who is based at Caltech with a joint JPL appointment, and by JPL Project Scientist Olivier Doré. Data is processed and archived at IPAC at Caltech in Pasadena, which manages JPL for NASA. The SPHEREx dataset is freely available to scientists and the public.
For more information about the SPHEREx mission visit: https://science.nasa.gov/mission/spherex/
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NASA’s SPHEREx Mission Maps Water Ice Throughout Cygnus X
NASA/JPL-Caltech/IPAC/Hora et al. Photojournal Navigation Downloads NASA’s SPHEREx Mission Maps Water Ice Throughout Cygnus X
JPEG (1.99 MB)
PIA26748 Figure A
JPEG (6.64 MB)
Description
An observation made by NASA’s SPHEREx (Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization, and Ices Explorer) shows the chemical signatures of water ice (shown in bright blue) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (orange) in Cygnus X, one of the most active and turbulent regions of star birth in our Milky Way galaxy.
One of several maps of molecular clouds made by SPHEREx, this observation is detailed in a study published April 15, 2026, in The Astrophysical Journal. The study supports the hypothesis that interstellar ice forms on the surface of tiny dust particles no larger than particles found in the smoke from a candle. The findings show the densest regions of ice coincide with the densest regions of dust, and the dust shields the ice from the intense ultraviolet radiation emitted by newborn stars.
Figure AFigure A shows the same region, but in three different wavelengths assigned the colors green, blue, and red. This SPHEREx observation highlights the dark, dusty lanes that protect the water molecules from the intense radiation generated by newborn stars.
Although space telescopes such as NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope and the agency’s retired Spitzer have detected water, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, and other icy molecules throughout our galaxy, the SPHEREx observatory is the first infrared mission specifically designed to find such molecules over the entire sky, via the mission’s large-scale spectral survey.
Managed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, the SPHEREx observatory launchedMarch 11, 2025, and has the unique ability to see the sky in 102 colors, each representing a different wavelength of infrared light that offers distinctive information about galaxies, stars, planet-forming regions, and other cosmic features. By late 2025, SPHEREx had completed the first of four all-sky infrared maps of the universe, charting the positions of hundreds of millions of galaxies in 3D to help answer major questions about the cosmos, including those about the origins of water and life.
The mission is managed by JPL for the agency’s Astrophysics Division within the Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The telescope and the spacecraft bus were built by BAE Systems in Boulder, Colorado. The science analysis of the SPHEREx data is being conducted by a team of scientists at 13 institutions across the U.S. and in South Korea and Taiwan, led by Principal Investigator Jamie Bock, who is based at Caltech with a joint JPL appointment, and by JPL Project Scientist Olivier Doré. Data is processed and archived at IPAC at Caltech in Pasadena, which manages JPL for NASA. The SPHEREx dataset is freely available to scientists and the public.
For more information about the SPHEREx mission visit: https://science.nasa.gov/mission/spherex/
Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From Photojournal
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‘Interstellar Glaciers’: NASA’s SPHEREx Maps Vast Galactic Ice Regions
6 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) Water ice highlighted Interstellar dust highlighted These observations made by NASA’s SPHEREx mission reveal vast frozen complexes in the Cygnus X star-forming region of the Milky Way galaxy. Water ice, shown as bright blue structures at left, exactly overlays the dark lanes of interstellar dust, shown in different wavelengths at right.NASA/JPL-Caltech/IPAC/Hora et al These observations made by NASA’s SPHEREx mission reveal vast frozen complexes in the Cygnus X star-forming region of the Milky Way galaxy. Water ice, shown as bright blue structures at left, exactly overlays the dark lanes of interstellar dust, shown in different wavelengths at right. Water ice highlightedInterstellar dust highlighted These observations made by NASA’s SPHEREx mission reveal vast frozen complexes in the Cygnus X star-forming region of the Milky Way galaxy. Water ice, shown as bright blue structures at left, exactly overlays the dark lanes of interstellar dust, shown in different wavelengths at right.NASA/JPL-Caltech/IPAC/Hora et al These observations made by NASA’s SPHEREx mission reveal vast frozen complexes in the Cygnus X star-forming region of the Milky Way galaxy. Water ice, shown as bright blue structures at left, exactly overlays the dark lanes of interstellar dust, shown in different wavelengths at right. Water ice highlighted Interstellar dust highlighted CurtainToggle2-Up Image Details These observations made by NASA’s SPHEREx mission reveal vast frozen complexes in the Cygnus X star-forming region of the Milky Way galaxy. Water ice, shown as bright blue structures at left, exactly overlays the dark lanes of interstellar dust, shown in different wavelengths at right.NASA’s SPHEREx (Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization, and Ices Explorer) mission has mapped interstellar ice at an unprecedented scale. Covering regions in our Milky Way galaxy more than 600 light-years across, the ice was found inside giant molecular clouds — vast regions of gas and dust where dense clumps of matter collapse under gravity, giving birth to stars. A study describing these findings published Wednesday in The Astrophysical Journal.
One of SPHEREx’s main goals is to map the chemical signatures of various types of interstellar ice. This ice includes molecules like water, carbon dioxide, and carbon monoxide, which are vital to the chemistry that allows life to develop. Researchers believe these ice reservoirs, attached to the surfaces of tiny dust grains, are where most of the universe’s water is formed and stored. The water in Earth’s oceans — and the ices in comets and on other planets and moons in our galaxy — originates from these regions.
“These vast frozen complexes are like ‘interstellar glaciers’ that could deliver a massive water supply to new solar systems that will be born in the region,” said study coauthor Phil Korngut, the instrument scientist for SPHEREx at Caltech in Pasadena, California. “It’s a profound idea that we are looking at a map of material that could rain on nascent planets and potentially support future life.”
Thanks to its spectral capabilities, SPHEREx can measure the amounts of various ices and molecules, such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, in and around molecular clouds, helping scientists better understand their composition and environment.
Although space telescopes such as NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope and the agency’s retired Spitzer have detected water, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, and other icy molecules throughout our galaxy, the SPHEREx observatory is the first infrared mission specifically designed to find such molecules over the entire sky via the mission’s large-scale spectral survey.
“We expected to detect these ices in front of individual bright stars: The light from a star acts like a spotlight, revealing any ice in the space between us and that star. But this is something different,” said lead author Joseph Hora, an astronomer at the Center for Astrophysics (CfA) at Harvard & Smithsonian in Cambridge, Massachusetts. “When looking along the galactic plane — where most of the stars, gas, and dust of our galaxy are concentrated — there’s a lot of diffuse background light shining through entire dust clouds, and SPHEREx can see the spatial distribution of the ices they contain in incredible detail.”
Managed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, the SPHEREx observatory launched March 11, 2025, and has the unique ability to see the sky in 102 colors, each representing a different wavelength of infrared light that offers distinctive information about galaxies, stars, planet-forming regions, and other cosmic features. By late 2025, SPHEREx had completed the first of four all-sky infrared maps of the universe, charting the positions of hundreds of millions of galaxies in 3D to help answer major questions about the cosmos, including those about the origins of water and life.
Icy originsUsing the SPHEREx maps of various icy molecules, the study’s authors were able to look deep into many molecular clouds in the Cygnus X and North American Nebula regions of the Milky Way. In the densest areas, where the amount of dust is greatest, dark filamentary lanes block the visible light from the stars behind. With its infrared eye, the space telescope also revealed where the different ices — which absorb specific wavelengths of infrared light that would pass through the clouds if they consisted only of dust — are at their densest.
This finding supports the hypothesis that interstellar ice forms on the surface of tiny dust particles, which are no larger than particles found in candle smoke, and that the dense regions of dust shield the ices from the intense ultraviolet radiation emitted by newborn stars. However, not all ices are treated the same way in the interstellar medium.
“We can investigate the environmental factors that contribute to different ice formation rates across large areas of interstellar space,” said study coauthor Gary Melnick, also an astronomer at the CfA. “The SPHEREx mission’s ‘big picture’ view provides valuable new information you can’t get when zooming in on a small region.”
Within this broad perspective, adds Melnick, SPHEREx can do something ground-based observatories cannot: detect varying amounts of water and carbon dioxide, two ices that respond differently to environmental factors. For example, the presence of intense ultraviolet light from nearby massive young stars or the heating of these dust grains by that light affects the abundances of different ices in distinct ways.
This is just the beginning for the mission. Observations from SPHEREx will provide scientists with a powerful tool to explore the various components of our galaxy, the physics of the interstellar medium that lead to star and planet formation, and the chemical processes that deliver molecules essential for life to newly formed planets.
More about SPHERExThe mission is managed by JPL for the agency’s Astrophysics Division within the Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The telescope and the spacecraft bus were built by BAE Systems in Boulder, Colorado. The science analysis of the SPHEREx data is being conducted by a team of scientists at 13 institutions across the U.S. and in South Korea and Taiwan, led by Principal Investigator Jamie Bock, who is based at Caltech with a joint JPL appointment, and by JPL Project Scientist Olivier Doré. Data is processed and archived at IPAC at Caltech in Pasadena, which manages JPL for NASA. The SPHEREx dataset is freely available to scientists and the public.
For more information about the SPHEREx mission visit:
https://science.nasa.gov/mission/spherex/
Media Contacts
Ian J. O’Neill
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
818-354-2649
ian.j.oneill@jpl.nasa.gov
Alise Fisher
NASA Headquarters, Washington
202-617-4977
alise.m.fisher@nasa.gov
Amy C. Oliver, FRAS
Public Affairs Officer
Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory
amy.oliver@cfa.harvard.edu
2026-022
Share Details Last Updated Apr 15, 2026 Related Terms Explore More 3 min read NASA’s SPHEREx Mission Maps Water Ice Throughout Cygnus XDescription An observation made by NASA’s SPHEREx (Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of…
Article 1 day ago 5 min read NASA Finds Young Stars Dim in X-rays Surprisingly QuicklyScientists have found that young stellar cousins of our Sun are calming down and dimming…
Article 2 days ago 5 min read NASA’s Webb Redefines Dividing Line Between Planets, StarsPlanets, like those in our solar system, form in a bottom-up process where small bits…
Article 2 days ago Keep Exploring Discover Related TopicsSPHEREx
StarsAstronomers estimate that the universe could contain up to one septillion stars – that’s a one followed by 24 zeros.…
Infrared AstronomyBeyond Visible Light The rainbow of light that the human eye can see is a small portion of the total…
Cosmic Clouds in CygnusThese cosmic clouds of gas and dust driftthrough rich star fields along theplane of our Milky Way Galaxy toward the…
‘Interstellar Glaciers’: NASA’s SPHEREx Maps Vast Galactic Ice Regions
6 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) Water ice highlighted Interstellar dust highlighted These observations made by NASA’s SPHEREx mission reveal vast frozen complexes in the Cygnus X star-forming region of the Milky Way galaxy. Water ice, shown as bright blue structures at left, exactly overlays the dark lanes of interstellar dust, shown in different wavelengths at right.NASA/JPL-Caltech/IPAC/Hora et al These observations made by NASA’s SPHEREx mission reveal vast frozen complexes in the Cygnus X star-forming region of the Milky Way galaxy. Water ice, shown as bright blue structures at left, exactly overlays the dark lanes of interstellar dust, shown in different wavelengths at right. Water ice highlightedInterstellar dust highlighted These observations made by NASA’s SPHEREx mission reveal vast frozen complexes in the Cygnus X star-forming region of the Milky Way galaxy. Water ice, shown as bright blue structures at left, exactly overlays the dark lanes of interstellar dust, shown in different wavelengths at right.NASA/JPL-Caltech/IPAC/Hora et al These observations made by NASA’s SPHEREx mission reveal vast frozen complexes in the Cygnus X star-forming region of the Milky Way galaxy. Water ice, shown as bright blue structures at left, exactly overlays the dark lanes of interstellar dust, shown in different wavelengths at right. Water ice highlighted Interstellar dust highlighted CurtainToggle2-Up Image Details These observations made by NASA’s SPHEREx mission reveal vast frozen complexes in the Cygnus X star-forming region of the Milky Way galaxy. Water ice, shown as bright blue structures at left, exactly overlays the dark lanes of interstellar dust, shown in different wavelengths at right.NASA’s SPHEREx (Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization, and Ices Explorer) mission has mapped interstellar ice at an unprecedented scale. Covering regions in our Milky Way galaxy more than 600 light-years across, the ice was found inside giant molecular clouds — vast regions of gas and dust where dense clumps of matter collapse under gravity, giving birth to stars. A study describing these findings published Wednesday in The Astrophysical Journal.
One of SPHEREx’s main goals is to map the chemical signatures of various types of interstellar ice. This ice includes molecules like water, carbon dioxide, and carbon monoxide, which are vital to the chemistry that allows life to develop. Researchers believe these ice reservoirs, attached to the surfaces of tiny dust grains, are where most of the universe’s water is formed and stored. The water in Earth’s oceans — and the ices in comets and on other planets and moons in our galaxy — originates from these regions.
“These vast frozen complexes are like ‘interstellar glaciers’ that could deliver a massive water supply to new solar systems that will be born in the region,” said study coauthor Phil Korngut, the instrument scientist for SPHEREx at Caltech in Pasadena, California. “It’s a profound idea that we are looking at a map of material that could rain on nascent planets and potentially support future life.”
Thanks to its spectral capabilities, SPHEREx can measure the amounts of various ices and molecules, such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, in and around molecular clouds, helping scientists better understand their composition and environment.
Although space telescopes such as NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope and the agency’s retired Spitzer have detected water, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, and other icy molecules throughout our galaxy, the SPHEREx observatory is the first infrared mission specifically designed to find such molecules over the entire sky via the mission’s large-scale spectral survey.
“We expected to detect these ices in front of individual bright stars: The light from a star acts like a spotlight, revealing any ice in the space between us and that star. But this is something different,” said lead author Joseph Hora, an astronomer at the Center for Astrophysics (CfA) at Harvard & Smithsonian in Cambridge, Massachusetts. “When looking along the galactic plane — where most of the stars, gas, and dust of our galaxy are concentrated — there’s a lot of diffuse background light shining through entire dust clouds, and SPHEREx can see the spatial distribution of the ices they contain in incredible detail.”
Managed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, the SPHEREx observatory launched March 11, 2025, and has the unique ability to see the sky in 102 colors, each representing a different wavelength of infrared light that offers distinctive information about galaxies, stars, planet-forming regions, and other cosmic features. By late 2025, SPHEREx had completed the first of four all-sky infrared maps of the universe, charting the positions of hundreds of millions of galaxies in 3D to help answer major questions about the cosmos, including those about the origins of water and life.
Icy originsUsing the SPHEREx maps of various icy molecules, the study’s authors were able to look deep into many molecular clouds in the Cygnus X and North American Nebula regions of the Milky Way. In the densest areas, where the amount of dust is greatest, dark filamentary lanes block the visible light from the stars behind. With its infrared eye, the space telescope also revealed where the different ices — which absorb specific wavelengths of infrared light that would pass through the clouds if they consisted only of dust — are at their densest.
This finding supports the hypothesis that interstellar ice forms on the surface of tiny dust particles, which are no larger than particles found in candle smoke, and that the dense regions of dust shield the ices from the intense ultraviolet radiation emitted by newborn stars. However, not all ices are treated the same way in the interstellar medium.
“We can investigate the environmental factors that contribute to different ice formation rates across large areas of interstellar space,” said study coauthor Gary Melnick, also an astronomer at the CfA. “The SPHEREx mission’s ‘big picture’ view provides valuable new information you can’t get when zooming in on a small region.”
Within this broad perspective, adds Melnick, SPHEREx can do something ground-based observatories cannot: detect varying amounts of water and carbon dioxide, two ices that respond differently to environmental factors. For example, the presence of intense ultraviolet light from nearby massive young stars or the heating of these dust grains by that light affects the abundances of different ices in distinct ways.
This is just the beginning for the mission. Observations from SPHEREx will provide scientists with a powerful tool to explore the various components of our galaxy, the physics of the interstellar medium that lead to star and planet formation, and the chemical processes that deliver molecules essential for life to newly formed planets.
More about SPHERExThe mission is managed by JPL for the agency’s Astrophysics Division within the Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The telescope and the spacecraft bus were built by BAE Systems in Boulder, Colorado. The science analysis of the SPHEREx data is being conducted by a team of scientists at 13 institutions across the U.S. and in South Korea and Taiwan, led by Principal Investigator Jamie Bock, who is based at Caltech with a joint JPL appointment, and by JPL Project Scientist Olivier Doré. Data is processed and archived at IPAC at Caltech in Pasadena, which manages JPL for NASA. The SPHEREx dataset is freely available to scientists and the public.
For more information about the SPHEREx mission visit:
https://science.nasa.gov/mission/spherex/
Media Contacts
Ian J. O’Neill
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
818-354-2649
ian.j.oneill@jpl.nasa.gov
Alise Fisher
NASA Headquarters, Washington
202-617-4977
alise.m.fisher@nasa.gov
Amy C. Oliver, FRAS
Public Affairs Officer
Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory
amy.oliver@cfa.harvard.edu
2026-022
Share Details Last Updated Apr 15, 2026 Related Terms Explore More 3 min read NASA’s SPHEREx Mission Maps Water Ice Throughout Cygnus XDescription An observation made by NASA’s SPHEREx (Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of…
Article 1 day ago 5 min read NASA Finds Young Stars Dim in X-rays Surprisingly QuicklyScientists have found that young stellar cousins of our Sun are calming down and dimming…
Article 2 days ago 5 min read NASA’s Webb Redefines Dividing Line Between Planets, StarsPlanets, like those in our solar system, form in a bottom-up process where small bits…
Article 2 days ago Keep Exploring Discover Related TopicsSPHEREx
StarsAstronomers estimate that the universe could contain up to one septillion stars – that’s a one followed by 24 zeros.…
Infrared AstronomyBeyond Visible Light The rainbow of light that the human eye can see is a small portion of the total…
Cosmic Clouds in CygnusThese cosmic clouds of gas and dust driftthrough rich star fields along theplane of our Milky Way Galaxy toward the…
Why do older people have fewer seasonal allergies?
Do declining immune systems explain the trend, or is something else going on? Experts explain
Artemis II Crew Returns to Houston
Artemis II Crew Returns to Houston
NASA’s Artemis II crew – NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, and CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy Hansen – smile at friends, family, and colleagues. They shared brief remarks with the crowd after landing at Ellington Airport near NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston on Saturday, April 11, 2026, after a nearly 10-day journey around the Moon and back to Earth.
View the latest imagery from the Artemis II mission on our Artemis II Multimedia Resource Page.
Image credit: NASA/Helen Arase Vargas
Artemis II Crew Returns to Houston
NASA’s Artemis II crew – NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, and CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy Hansen – smile at friends, family, and colleagues. They shared brief remarks with the crowd after landing at Ellington Airport near NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston on Saturday, April 11, 2026, after a nearly 10-day journey around the Moon and back to Earth.
View the latest imagery from the Artemis II mission on our Artemis II Multimedia Resource Page.
Image credit: NASA/Helen Arase Vargas
250-million-year-old fossil proves mammal ancestors laid eggs
Laying eggs may have helped mammal ancestors thrive after Earth’s worst mass extinction