Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

This all-sky mosaic image from NASAs SPHEREx space telescope was collected between May and December 2025 and features two of the 102 infrared colors the observatory can detect. Infrared colors are invisible to the human eye but are represented here in visible colors. The infrared colors included in these images were selected to highlight the presence of hot hydrogen gas (blue), and cosmic dust (red). The bright feature running through the middle of the images is the Milky Way Galaxy, filled with gas and dust.

The prominent red clouds seen here are a type of cosmic dust known as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), a common ingredient in the formation of stars and planets. This dust primarily emits one wavelength of light around 3.4 microns. The bubbles of hot hydrogen gas (blue), corresponds to a wavelength of around 4 microns.

Breaking the light from cosmic objects into its constituent wavelengths is a technique called spectroscopy. This image illustrates one primary use of spectroscopy, which is to identify the presence of certain chemical elements. Other wavelengths of light observed by SPHEREx reveal the presence of water ice, carbon dioxide ice, and carbon monoxide ice. With its all-sky view, the observatory will help scientists measure the large-scale distribution of these materials in the Milky Way galaxy. These chemicals are all building blocks of organic material, and essential for the formation of life as we know it.

In order to make the file sizes smaller, the spatial resolution of these images has been reduced by a factor of one thousand from the full-resolution SPHEREx data images.

The elliptical projection used in this image encompasses the entire visible sky.

Provider: SPHEREx

Image Source: https://www.spherex.caltech.edu/image/spherex20251218c-spherex-all-sky-map-2025-dust-and-gas

Curator: SPHEREx at Caltech, Pasadena, CA, United States