Ices of the Nursery

Mission completion0 / 4

Mission briefing

What are we investigating, and why?

One of SPHEREx's core science goals is a census of interstellar ices. Background starlight passing through dense clouds picks up absorption near 3.0 µm (H₂O) and 4.27 µm (CO₂).

01 Locate background stars behind the cloud

02 Inspect 2.9–3.2 µm and 4.2–4.3 µm channels

03 Compare with an unobscured reference star

04 Submit an ice-feature measurement