Explanipedia

Spaceflight KID Readout Electronics for PRIMA Open

Thomas Essinger-Hileman, Patrick L. Brown, Sean Bryan, Jesse Coldsmith, Jennifer Corekin , et al. · 2025

We present the design and testing of a prototype multiplexing kinetic inductance detector (KID) readout electronics for the PRobe far-Infrared Mission for Astrophysics (PRIMA) space mission. PRIMA is a Probe-class astrophysics mission conc…

The SPHEREx Sky Simulator: Science Data Modeling for the First All-sky Near-infrared Spectral Survey Open

B. P. Crill, Yoonsoo P. Bach, Sean Bryan, Jean Choppin de Janvry, A. Cukierman , et al. · 2025

We describe the SPHEREx Sky Simulator (henceforth the Simulator), a software tool designed to model science data for NASA’s SPHEREx mission that will carry out a series of all-sky spectrophotometric surveys at ∼6″ spatial resolution in 102…

KID Detector Readout Electronics Development for Habitable Worlds Observatory Open

Sean Bryan, C. M. Bradford, Keith Chamberlin, Sumit Dahal, Tracee Jamison-Hooks , et al. · 2025

We present the status and goals of the readout electronics system we are developing to support the detector arrays in the coronagraph instrument on the NASA Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO) mission currently in development. HWO aims to r…

SPHEREx Discovery of Strong Water Ice Absorption and an Extended Carbon Dioxide Coma in 3I/ATLAS Open

C. M. Lisse, Yoonsoo P. Bach, Sean Bryan, B. P. Crill, A. Cukierman , et al. · 2025

In mid-August 2025, 0.75–5.0 μ m SPHEREx imaging spectrophotometric and ancillary NASA-IRTF/SpeX 0.7–2.5 μ m low-resolution spectral observations of 3I/ATLAS were obtained. The combined spectrophotometry is dominated by features due to wat…

The SPHEREx Sky Simulator: Science Data Modeling for the First All-Sky Near-Infrared Spectral Survey Open

B. P. Crill, Yoonsoo P. Bach, Sean Bryan, Jean Choppin de Janvry, A. Cukierman , et al. · 2025

We describe the SPHEREx Sky Simulator, a software tool designed to model science data for NASA's SPHEREx mission that will carry out a series of all-sky spectrophotometric surveys at $\sim$6'' spatial resolution in 102 spectral channels sp…

The Relational Dynamics of Space-Time Open

Kevork N. Abazajian, Graeme E. Addison, Peter Adshead, Zeeshan Ahmed, S. W. Allen , et al. · 2024

The Relational Dynamics of Space-Time is a groundbreaking theory that redefines space-time as an emergent and discrete structure, arising from fundamental interactions between elementary entities. Rooted in the principle that “nothing is e…

In-flight performance of SPIDER's 280 GHz receivers Open

Elle C. Shaw, P. A. R. Ade, Scott Akers, M. Amiri, Jason E. Austermann , et al. · 2024

SPIDER is a balloon-borne instrument designed to map the cosmic microwave background at degree-angular scales in the presence of Galactic foregrounds. Spider has mapped a large sky area in the Southern Hemisphere using more than 2000 trans…

Robust Joint Estimation of Galaxy Redshift and Spectral Templates using Online Dictionary Learning Open

Sean Bryan, Ayan Barekzai, Delondrae Carter, P. Mauskopf, Julian Mena , et al. · 2023

We present a novel approach to analyzing astronomical spectral survey data using our non-linear extension of an online dictionary learning algorithm. Current and upcoming surveys such as SPHEREx will use spectral data to build a 3D map of …

BoloCalc: a sensitivity calculator for the design of Simons Observatory (Erratum) Open

Charles A. Hill, Sarah Marie Bruno, Sara M. Simon, Aamir Ali, Kam Arnold , et al. · 2023

Publisher's Note: This paper, originally published on, 9 July 2018, was replaced with a corrected/revised version on,12 September 2023. If you downloaded the original PDF but are unable to access the revision, please contact SPIE Digital L…

In-Flight Gain Monitoring of SPIDER’s Transition-Edge Sensor Arrays Open

J. P. Filippini, A. E. Gambrel, A. Rahlin, E. Young, P. A. R. Ade , et al. · 2022

A Simulation-based Method for Correcting Mode Coupling in CMB Angular Power Spectra Open

Jason S.-Y. Leung, John W. Hartley, Johanna M. Nagy, C. B. Netterfield, J. A. Shariff , et al. · 2022

Modern cosmic microwave background (CMB) analysis pipelines regularly employ complex time-domain filters, beam models, masking, and other techniques during the production of sky maps and their corresponding angular power spectra. However, …

Snowmass 2021 CMB-S4 White Paper Open

Kevork N. Abazajian, Arwa Abdulghafour, Graeme E. Addison, Peter Adshead, Zeeshan Ahmed , et al. · 2022

This Snowmass 2021 White Paper describes the Cosmic Microwave Background Stage 4 project CMB-S4, which is designed to cross critical thresholds in our understanding of the origin and evolution of the Universe, from the highest energies at …

Snowmass2021 CMB-HD White Paper Open

The CMB-HD Collaboration, NULL AUTHOR_ID, Simone Aiola, Y. Akrami, Kaustuv Basu , et al. · 2022

CMB-HD is a proposed millimeter-wave survey over half the sky that would be ultra-deep (0.5 uK-arcmin) and have unprecedented resolution (15 arcseconds at 150 GHz). Such a survey would answer many outstanding questions about the fundamenta…

A Constraint on Primordial B-modes from the First Flight of the Spider Balloon-borne Telescope Open

P. A. R. Ade, M. Amiri, Steven J. Benton, A. S. Bergman, R. Bihary , et al. · 2022

We present the first linear polarization measurements from the 2015 long-duration balloon flight of Spider , which is an experiment that is designed to map the polarization of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) on degree angular scales.…

CMB-S4: Forecasting Constraints on Primordial Gravitational Waves Open

Kevork N. Abazajian, Graeme E. Addison, Peter Adshead, Zeeshan Ahmed, D. S. Akerib , et al. · 2022

CMB-S4—the next-generation ground-based cosmic microwave background (CMB) experiment—is set to significantly advance the sensitivity of CMB measurements and enhance our understanding of the origin and evolution of the universe. Among the s…