The Korea Astronomical Research Institute, together with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Jet Propulsion Research Center (JPL) and California Institute of Technology (Caltech), is a’all-round infrared image spectroscopy space telescope’ (SPHEREx) that can observe the entire sky with 102 wavelengths. ) Announced that it will start production.
According to Cheon Mun-yeon on the 7th, SPHEREx began in 2016 when Cheon Mun-yeon made a proposal to NASA in collaboration with an international research team based on an international joint research plan with Caltech.
NASA selected this proposal in February 2019, evaluated the results of the preliminary design in October 2020, and announced the final approval on the same day, explained Moonyeon Cheon.
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| ▲ A conceptual diagram of the SPHEREx space telescope. |
SPHEREx, the world’s first designed to perform image spectroscopy of the entire sky, can observe infrared celestial bodies that are difficult to observe due to atmospheric losses on the ground. By applying image spectroscopy technology, it is possible to observe the entire universe at 102 wavelengths as if 102 filters were used.
Image spectroscopy is a technology that combines’Imaging’, which simultaneously observes a large area, and’Spectroscopy,’ which measures the change in brightness according to the wavelength of individual objects.
In SPHEREx, the linear spectral filter first applied by Cheon Mun-yeon to the science-mounted’NISS’ of the next-generation small satellite 1 is used.
In the SPHEREx consortium that will produce and operate SPHEREx, 12 organizations including NASA JPL and Ball Aerospace, including the lead agency Caltech, will participate.
Moon-Yeon Cheon will lead the development and testing of cryogenic vacuum chambers to be used in the space environment test of the telescope, and will participate in the development of observational data analysis software and core scientific research.
The lead agency, Caltech, develops infrared observation equipment and data processing pipelines, NASA JPL is in charge of mission operation and payload development and assembly, and ball aerospace is in charge of satellite production.
When SPHEREx is completed, it will be launched in solar synchronous orbit in 2024, and will perform more than four all-round spectral exploration missions in about two years and six months. The research team hopes that this will enable the creation of an all-spectral list of approximately 2 billion individual celestial bodies in the universe.
By reconstructing the observation image of SPHEREx and the emission spectrum of each celestial body, three-dimensional spatial information of the universe can be obtained. This is expected to be a clue to solving the mystery of infrared cosmic background radiation containing information on the theory of cosmic expansion by the rapid expansion of space immediately after the Big Bang and information on galaxy formation and evolution.
NASA JPL’s Dr. Alan Farrington described the project as “just like a filming technique in the transition from black-and-white to color films in movie history, SPHEREx’s all-space image spectroscopy is a landmark attempt to break the history of astrophysics.” did.
Dr. Moon-Yeon Chung, the head of research on the Korean side, said, “We have been able to participate in the joint development of SPHEREx based on the experience of independent development of NISS, the first science-mounted small satellite of the past,” and “Through this joint development, the researchers “I gained confidence in the development of the space telescope,” he said.
Reporter Yoon Seung-hoon [email protected]
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