NASA Space Apps 2026
Flicker the sky.
Scroll past SPHEREx. It is already mapping the whole sky in infrared.
Preparing the telescope…
Hover for header
Near infrared
One hundred and two colors.
Every visit is a spectrum — 0.75 to 5 µm — not a single photo.
What shifts
Find what moves.
Movers show up only when two visits are blinked side by side.
The team
Flickering Pixels.
A public blink of SPHEREx, for anyone who wants to look.
Scroll to fly past
A billion objects. Nobody can watch them all.
SPHEREx is mapping the near-infrared sky. The interesting sources are the ones that move — and they need a public way to look.
Mission scale
102
IR bands per visit6 mo
between all-sky maps1B+
objects in the survey5
proof targetsCoordinate → blink.
Small on purpose: pick a place, load the visits, watch what moves.
Pick a spot
Give IRSA a coordinate. It returns every SPHEREx visit that covers it, in time order.
Blink the visits
Play the frames. Fixed stars hold. A mover walks.
Find what moves
Compare visits, mark walkers, and chase anything new in the field.
This is the view inside the tool.
Real SPHEREx cutouts of Messier 031 (RA 10.68479°, Dec 41.26906°). Flicker the visits and retune the wavelength.
Five places the blink must tell the truth.
Start with WISE 0855. Movers move. Variables that stay put stay put.
Brown dwarf
WISE 0855
Coldest known. If it walks vs AllWISE, the blink is honest.
RA 08h 55m · Dec −7° 14′
Nearby star
Barnard's Star
High proper motion — should slide between visits.
High proper motion
Brown dwarf
Epsilon Indi B
A nearby companion — a clean second mover test.
Companion of ε Indi
Young star
RW Aurigae
Variable brightness — should hold position.
Taurus
Variable star
R Draconis
Long-period variable — position, not pulse.
Mira-type
Flickering Pixels
Next step: real SPHEREx visits, open to anyone.