Federal Independent Agencies
Here's a look at documents from federal independent agencies
Featured Stories
Tricia Edwards Named Director of Smithsonian Libraries and Archives
WASHINGTON, April 16 -- The Smithsonian Institution Libraries and Archives issued the following news release on April 15, 2026:
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Tricia Edwards Named Director of Smithsonian Libraries and Archives
The Smithsonian has announced the appointment of Tricia Edwards as director of Smithsonian Libraries and Archives, effective Monday, April 20. Edwards has served as interim director since September 2025.
"Tricia brings deep institutional knowledge and a lifelong commitment to education and public service," said Lonnie G. Bunch III, Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. "Her breadth of experience
... Show Full Article
WASHINGTON, April 16 -- The Smithsonian Institution Libraries and Archives issued the following news release on April 15, 2026:
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Tricia Edwards Named Director of Smithsonian Libraries and Archives
The Smithsonian has announced the appointment of Tricia Edwards as director of Smithsonian Libraries and Archives, effective Monday, April 20. Edwards has served as interim director since September 2025.
"Tricia brings deep institutional knowledge and a lifelong commitment to education and public service," said Lonnie G. Bunch III, Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. "Her breadth of experienceacross the Smithsonian and her dedicated leadership over the years make her exceptionally well suited to lead Smithsonian Libraries and Archives into its next chapter."
"It is a privilege to lead Smithsonian Libraries and Archives and to work alongside the staff who care for these collections and make them accessible," Edwards said. "This work plays an essential role in preserving our history and supporting research across the Institution. I am grateful for the opportunity to continue it."
Smithsonian Libraries and Archives encompasses 20 library branches and reading rooms, and it is responsible for nearly 3 million library volumes and more than 44,000 cubic feet of archival materials that document the history of the Smithsonian and support research across the Institution.
Prior to joining Smithsonian Libraries and Archives, Edwards served as deputy director of the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service and Smithsonian Affiliations (SITES | SA), where she provided executive leadership for strategic planning, development and operations. From June 2024 to June 2025, she also served as interim director of SITES | SA. Earlier roles included deputy director for Smithsonian Affiliations and interim deputy director for exhibits, finance and administration at SITES.
Earlier in her Smithsonian career, Edwards spent 12 years as head of education at the Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation at the National Museum of American History. During that time, she created Spark!Lab, a pioneering hands-on invention space for children that now operates in museums across the United States and internationally, and launched an award winning consumer product line under the Spark!Lab brand.
Before coming to the Smithsonian, Edwards directed education programs at the Baltimore Museum of Industry, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund and the Delaware Museum of Natural History (now the Delaware Museum of Nature and Science). She began her career as a preschool teacher, establishing a foundation for a career centered on learning, curiosity and public engagement.
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About Smithsonian Libraries and Archives
Smithsonian Libraries and Archives is the Smithsonian's central library and archival system, supporting the research, exhibitions and scholarship of the Institution. SLA comprises 20 library branches and reading rooms serving Smithsonian museums, research centers and the public.
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Original text here: https://www.si.edu/newsdesk/releases/tricia-edwards-named-director-smithsonian-libraries-and-archives
Social Security Administration Charge Card Program Risk: Low
WOODLAWN, Maryland, April 16 (TNSrpt) -- The Social Security Administration's Office of the Inspector General issued the following news release:
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Social Security Administration Charge Card Program Risk: Low
The Social Security Administration (SSA) Office of Inspector General (OIG) recently informed the Director of the U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) of the OIG's assessment of SSA's charge card program and determined the risk was low.
SSA reported it had approximately $21 million in purchase card spending and approximately $2 million in travel card and centrally billed account
... Show Full Article
WOODLAWN, Maryland, April 16 (TNSrpt) -- The Social Security Administration's Office of the Inspector General issued the following news release:
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Social Security Administration Charge Card Program Risk: Low
The Social Security Administration (SSA) Office of Inspector General (OIG) recently informed the Director of the U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) of the OIG's assessment of SSA's charge card program and determined the risk was low.
SSA reported it had approximately $21 million in purchase card spending and approximately $2 million in travel card and centrally billed accountspending in Fiscal Year (FY) 2025. SSA had not significantly changed its controls since the last assessment, and nothing came to SSA OIG's attention that required further analysis or audit of SSA's purchase and travel card purchases and payments.
SSA has established safeguards and internal controls that are intended to prevent waste, fraud, and abuse of purchase cards, travel cards, and centrally billed accounts. The Agency's Purchase and Travel Card Management Plans, which address legal and regulatory requirements, outline policies and procedures the Agency believes are critical to (1) ensuring a system of internal control is followed and (2) minimizing the potential for fraud, misuse, and delinquency.
As required by the Government Charge Card Abuse Prevention Act of 2012 (Act), as implemented by Appendix B of OMB Circular A-123, A Risk Management Framework for Government Charge Card Programs, all Executive Branch agencies must implement safeguards and internal controls to prevent waste, fraud, and abuse of purchase cards, travel cards, and centrally billed accounts. SSA OIG assessed the risk of illegal, improper, and erroneous purchases made through the SSA charge card programs.
For Executive Branch agencies with more than $10 million in annual purchase and/or $10 million in travel spending, the Act tasks Inspectors General to:
* Periodically assess agencies' purchase card or convenience check programs and travel card programs to identify and analyze the risks of illegal, improper, or erroneous purchases and payments;
* Analyze or audit, as necessary, purchase and travel card transactions designed to identify potentially illegal, improper, or erroneous uses of purchase and travel cards;
* Report to the Director of OMB on the implementation of recommendations made to the head of the Executive Branch Agency to address findings from any analysis or audit of purchase or travel card transactions; and
* Report jointly with the respective agency to the head of OMB on confirmed charge card violations.
In addition, OIGs must report to the Director of OMB on how their respective agencies have implemented recommendations. As of FY 2025, there were no open or closed prior-year recommendations pertaining to SSA's charge card programs.
Further, agencies must semi-annually report confirmed violations of purchase card misuse and all adverse personnel actions, punishment, or other actions taken based on each violation. However, SSA did not submit its Semi-annual Joint Violation reports in FY 2025. According to SSA's purchase card coordinator, SSA did not report the purchase card violations because SSA had reorganized and changed the purchase card program based on the February 2025 Executive Order, Implementing the President's "Department of Government Efficiency" Cost Efficiency Initiative. During OIG's review, in March 2026, SSA submitted its FY 2025 violation report.
For FY 2025, SSA reported no instances of misuse in its charge card programs. While purchase cards had no delinquencies, SSA reported there were two instances of delinquent travel card accounts that were 60 days past due. However, the employees paid those balances. In addition, SSA did not have any open or closed investigations and legal proceedings that involved charge card misuse by SSA employees.
Finally, the February 2025 Executive Order required all charge card transactions except for spending on disaster relief or natural disaster response benefits, operations, or other critical services be treated as frozen for 30 days. To comply with the Executive Order, SSA employees set single transaction limits to $1 for purchase and travel cards.
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REPORT: https://oig.ssa.gov/assets/uploads/032518.pdf
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Original text here: https://oig.ssa.gov/news-releases/2026-04-15-social-security-administration-charge-card-program-risk-low/
National Gallery of Art Receives Major Collection of Works From American Photographer Mitch Epstein
WASHINGTON, April 16 -- The National Gallery of Art issued the following news release:
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The National Gallery of Art Receives Major Collection of Works From American Photographer Mitch Epstein
The comprehensive gift from the artist and his wife spans Epstein's full career, transforming the National Gallery's contemporary photography holdings and establishing the most significant institutional collection of the artist's work
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Today, the National Gallery of Art announced that it has received a landmark gift of 1,261 photographs by Mitch Epstein, one of the most important living American
... Show Full Article
WASHINGTON, April 16 -- The National Gallery of Art issued the following news release:
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The National Gallery of Art Receives Major Collection of Works From American Photographer Mitch Epstein
The comprehensive gift from the artist and his wife spans Epstein's full career, transforming the National Gallery's contemporary photography holdings and establishing the most significant institutional collection of the artist's work
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Today, the National Gallery of Art announced that it has received a landmark gift of 1,261 photographs by Mitch Epstein, one of the most important living Americanphotographers, from the artist and his wife Susan Bell. Representing the full scope of Epstein's five-decade career, the acquisition establishes the National Gallery as the most significant institutional repository for his work and notably strengthens its holdings in contemporary American photography.
Over the course of his prolific career, Epstein has created an expansive body of work utilizing both richly saturated color and black-and-white with technical precision. His photographs examine American communities and the issues that affect them, from economic change to environmental crisis to civic protest, as well as probing more personal narratives, including his identity as the grandson of East European immigrants and life in his adopted hometown of New York City.
"Mitch Epstein's photography offers a sweeping and visually compelling chronicle of the United States and beyond from the 1970s through the present," said Kaywin Feldman, director of the National Gallery of Art. "By bringing the full breadth of his career into the collection and establishing the National Gallery of Art as the leading institutional home for Epstein's work, we will ensure that future generations will be able to study, experience, and reflect upon this important body of work. We are grateful to Epstein and to Susan Bell for entrusting us with this momentous gift."
The gift to the National Gallery encompasses master sets and portfolios from Epstein's major series. It includes his early street photographs and others made during road trips across the United States, as well as pivotal later projects such as A Language of New York and the intimate Family Business.
Also included are Epstein's thematically ambitious series of the past two decades: American Power, an examination of energy production and environmental consequence; New York Arbor, Rocks and Clouds, and Old Growth, which offer meditations on nature, time, and climate vulnerability; and Property Rights, which documents sites of protest and civic resistance across the country. The gift also includes eleven immersive large-scale prints selected from these series. Several of these will be on view at the National Gallery in exhibitions in 2026.
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About Mitch Epstein
Born in 1952 in Holyoke, Massachusetts, Epstein developed an interest in photography from an early age, going on to study at the Rhode Island School of Design and then the Cooper Union in New York, where he eventually settled and launched his career. Encouraged by his teacher, Garry Winogrand, and inspired upon seeing the brilliant color in the work of William Eggleston, Epstein embraced color as an essential expressive and compositional tool, just as color photography was beginning to gain acceptance in the fine art world. He developed a rigorous approach to printmaking, illustrated by the exceptional clarity and scale of his work.
Epstein has been inducted into the National Academy of Design (2020) and was awarded the Prix Pictet (2011), Berlin Prize (2008), and a Guggenheim Fellowship (2002). His work has been shown and collected by museums worldwide, including the Museum of Modern Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Whitney Museum of American Art, The Art Institute of Chicago, Tate Modern, the Getty Museum and LACMA, among others. Recent exhibitions include American Nature at the Gallerie d'Italia museum in Torino, Italy (2024-2025); In India at Les Rencontres d'Arles in the Abbey of Montmajour, Arles, France (2022); and Property Rights at The Amon Carter Museum of American Art in Fort Worth, Texas (2020-2021).
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About the National Gallery of Art
The National Gallery of Art welcomes all people to explore art, creativity, and our shared humanity. Millions of people come through its doors each year--with even more online--making it one of the most visited art museums in the world. The National Gallery's renowned collection includes over 160,000 works of art, from the ancient world to today. Admission to the West and East Buildings, Sculpture Garden, special exhibitions, and public programs is always free.
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Original text here: https://www.nga.gov/press/national-gallery-art-receives-major-collection-works-american-photographer-mitch-epstein
National Gallery of Art Announces C. D. Dickerson III as Dean of the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts
WASHINGTON, April 16 -- The National Gallery of Art issued the following news release on April 15, 2026:
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National Gallery of Art Announces C. D. Dickerson III as Dean of the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts
The National Gallery of Art announced today the appointment of C. D. Dickerson III as dean of the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts (the Center). Dickerson has been with the National Gallery since 2015, serving most recently as senior curator of European and American art and head of sculpture and decorative arts.
Appointed as the Center's dean following a nationwide
... Show Full Article
WASHINGTON, April 16 -- The National Gallery of Art issued the following news release on April 15, 2026:
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National Gallery of Art Announces C. D. Dickerson III as Dean of the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts
The National Gallery of Art announced today the appointment of C. D. Dickerson III as dean of the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts (the Center). Dickerson has been with the National Gallery since 2015, serving most recently as senior curator of European and American art and head of sculpture and decorative arts.
Appointed as the Center's dean following a nationwidesearch, Dickerson will join the National Gallery's executive leadership team when he assumes the role on June 1. He will be responsible for guiding and advancing the Center's scholarship in art, art history, and related fields through its acclaimed fellowship programs, convenings, publications, and research initiatives.
The Center was founded in 1979 with the goal of advancing art historical research and scholarship, developing talent, and supporting the field of art history. The Center hosts over 30 events, meetings, and symposia annually, including the A. W. Mellon Lectures in the Fine Arts, the National Gallery's longest-running lecture series, established soon after the museum's founding. The Center's fellows include art historians of all levels, from predoctoral researchers to appointed professors, who form a thriving community of approximately 50 scholars each year. Together, these programs promote the study of the production, use, and cultural meaning of art, artifacts, architecture, urbanism, photography, and film from all places and periods.
Dickerson has focused his curatorial and accompanying academic work at the National Gallery--including the exhibitions Canova: Sketching in Clay and Alonso Berruguete: First Sculptor of Renaissance Spain--on making the complexities of art history accessible to the public in imaginative ways and developing groundbreaking scholarship, furthering the National Gallery's mission as the nation's art museum.
"C. D. Dickerson has been a vital part of the National Gallery of Art since he arrived in 2015," said Kaywin Feldman, director of the National Gallery. "His vast curatorial, academic, and leadership experience, vision, and his dedication to accessible, high-impact research make him uniquely positioned to lead the Center. Under his leadership, the National Gallery will continue to serve as a resource to the art historical community worldwide, spearheading scholarly efforts at the highest level of rigor and excellence."
"I look forward to working with the National Gallery's staff and scholars to maintain the Center's position as one of the leading art history laboratories in the world," said Dickerson. "Having spent the past decade at the National Gallery, I have a deep appreciation for what makes this institution so extraordinary--from the collections to the people--and am genuinely thrilled to help shape the Center's next chapter."
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About C. D. Dickerson
C. D. Dickerson joined the National Gallery of Art in 2015 as curator and head of the department of sculpture and decorative arts. He became senior curator of European and American art in 2022. Dickerson was also the Ailsa Mellon Bruce Visiting Senior Fellow at the Center in 2014.
While leading the department of sculpture and decorative arts at the National Gallery, Dickerson has been responsible for several key acquisitions, including Luisa Roldan's Virgin and Child, David d'Angers's Comte Antoine Boulay de la Meurthe, and an important 17th-century northern European nautilus cup. His first exhibition at the National Gallery was Alonso Berruguete: First Sculptor of Renaissance Spain (2019-2020), the catalog for which won the Eleanor Tufts Award for best publication in Spanish art history. He also curated Canova: Sketching in Clay (2023-2024), an exhibition focused on the brilliantly expressive terracotta models of the sculptor Antonio Canova. The accompanying catalog was the first book devoted entirely to the subject. He is currently curating Broken: The Power of the Fragment in Sculpture, which will open at the National Gallery in March 2027, following its presentation at the Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi in Florence.
Prior to his time at the National Gallery, Dickerson spent eight years at the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth as curator of European art. The exhibitions he curated there included From the Private Collections of Texas: European Art, Ancient to Modern (2009-2010); Bernini: Sculpting in Clay (2012-2013); The Brothers Le Nain: Painters of Seventeenth-Century France (2016-2017); and Casanova: The Seduction of Europe (2017-2018).
Dickerson's work has been widely published in exhibition catalogs, scholarly articles, and reviews in leading academic journals, including The Burlington Magazine, Storia dell'arte, and Facture. He regularly presents his work in lectures, academic conferences, and scholarly symposia across the United States and Europe. He serves as a board member for Save Venice Inc. and the Chipstone Foundation. Dickerson enjoys volunteering his time to work with young scholars and serve on thesis and dissertation committees.
Dickerson holds a PhD in art history from the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, an MA from Washington University in St. Louis, and an AB from Princeton University.
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About the Center
Since its inception in 1979 with the opening of the National Gallery's East Building, the Center has promoted the study of the production, use, and cultural meaning of art, artifacts, architecture, urbanism, photography, and film from all places and periods through the formation of a community of scholars. Center publications seek to deepen our knowledge of the artistic past, present, and future, transforming our understanding of art's role in the world.
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About the National Gallery of Art
The National Gallery of Art welcomes all people to explore art, creativity, and our shared humanity. Millions of people come through its doors each year--with millions more online--making it one of the most visited art museums in the world. The National Gallery's renowned collection includes nearly 160,000 works of art, from the ancient world to today. Admission to the West and East Buildings, Sculpture Garden, special exhibitions, and public programs is always free.
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Original text here: https://www.nga.gov/press/national-gallery-art-announces-c-d-dickerson-iii-dean-center-advanced-study-visual-arts
Ginnie Mae Mortgage-Backed Securities Portfolio Reached $2.91 Trillion in March
WASHINGTON, April 16 -- Ginnie Mae issued the following news release:
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Ginnie Mae Mortgage-Backed Securities Portfolio Reached $2.91 Trillion in March
Ginnie Mae's mortgage-backed securities (MBS) portfolio outstanding grew to $2.91 trillion as of March 2026. In addition, Ginnie Mae issued $46.1 billion in total MBS, resulting in net portfolio growth of $4.16 billion. Ginnie Mae facilitated the pooling and securitization of more than 150,000 loans for first-time homebuyers year to date.
Key highlights from the March issuance include:
* $44.5 billion in Ginnie Mae II MBS.
* $1.5 billion
... Show Full Article
WASHINGTON, April 16 -- Ginnie Mae issued the following news release:
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Ginnie Mae Mortgage-Backed Securities Portfolio Reached $2.91 Trillion in March
Ginnie Mae's mortgage-backed securities (MBS) portfolio outstanding grew to $2.91 trillion as of March 2026. In addition, Ginnie Mae issued $46.1 billion in total MBS, resulting in net portfolio growth of $4.16 billion. Ginnie Mae facilitated the pooling and securitization of more than 150,000 loans for first-time homebuyers year to date.
Key highlights from the March issuance include:
* $44.5 billion in Ginnie Mae II MBS.
* $1.5 billionin Ginnie Mae I MBS, including $1.4 billion for multifamily housing loans.
* The pooling and securitization of loans for more than 128,000 American households, including over 49,000 first-time homebuyers.
For detailed information on monthly MBS issuance, unpaid principal balance, Real Estate Mortgage Investment Conduit (REMIC) issuance, and a broader analysis of global market trends, visit Ginnie Mae Disclosure (https://www.ginniemae.gov/data_and_reports/reporting/Pages/monthly_issuance_reports.aspx).
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About Ginnie Mae
Ginnie Mae is a wholly government-owned corporation that attracts global capital into the housing finance system to support homeownership for veterans and millions of homeowners throughout the country. Ginnie Mae MBS programs directly support housing finance programs administered by the Federal Housing Administration, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's Office of Public and Indian Housing, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Rural Housing Service. Ginnie Mae is the only MBS to carry the explicit full faith and credit of the U.S. Government. Additional information about Ginnie Mae is available at www.ginniemae.gov and on X, YouTube, Facebook, and LinkedIn.
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Original text here: https://www.ginniemae.gov/newsroom/Pages/PressReleaseDispPage.aspx?ParamID=374
'Interstellar Glaciers': NASA's SPHEREx Maps Vast Galactic Ice Regions
CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts, April 16 -- The Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics issued the following news release:
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'Interstellar Glaciers': NASA's SPHEREx Maps Vast Galactic Ice Regions
In observations led by CfA scientists, NASA's SPHEREx has mapped water, carbon dioxide, and carbon monoxide ices attached to the surface of tiny dust particles in clouds spanning hundreds of light-years across.
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Using NASA's SPHEREx (Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization, and Ices Explorer), scientists from the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian
... Show Full Article
CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts, April 16 -- The Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics issued the following news release:
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'Interstellar Glaciers': NASA's SPHEREx Maps Vast Galactic Ice Regions
In observations led by CfA scientists, NASA's SPHEREx has mapped water, carbon dioxide, and carbon monoxide ices attached to the surface of tiny dust particles in clouds spanning hundreds of light-years across.
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Using NASA's SPHEREx (Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization, and Ices Explorer), scientists from the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian(CfA) have helped map interstellar ice at an unprecedented scale. Covering regions in our Milky Way galaxy more than 600 light-years across, the ice was found inside giant molecular clouds, which are vast regions of gas and dust where dense clumps of matter collapse under gravity, giving birth to stars. A study describing these findings was published Wednesday in The Astrophysical Journal.
"We expected to detect these ices in front of individual bright stars: The light from a star acts like a spotlight, revealing any ice in the space between us and that star. But this is something different," said lead author Joseph Hora, an astronomer at the CfA. "When looking along the galactic plane, where most of the stars, gas, and dust of our galaxy are concentrated, there's a lot of diffuse background light shining through entire dust clouds, and SPHEREx can see the spatial distribution of the ices they contain in incredible detail."
Thanks to its spectral capabilities, SPHEREx can measure the amounts of various ices and molecules, such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, in and around molecular clouds, helping scientists better understand their composition and environment.
Although space telescopes such as NASA's James Webb Space Telescope and the agency's retired Spitzer have detected water, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, and other icy molecules throughout our galaxy, the SPHEREx observatory is the first infrared mission specifically designed to find such molecules over the entire sky, via the mission's large-scale spectral survey.
One of SPHEREx's main goals is to map the chemical signatures of various types of interstellar ice. This ice includes molecules like water, carbon dioxide, and carbon monoxide, which are vital to the chemistry that allows life to develop. Researchers believe these ice reservoirs, attached to the surfaces of tiny dust grains, are where most of the universe's water is formed and stored. The liquid water in Earth's oceans, and the ices in comets and on other planets and moons in our galaxy, originates from these regions.
"These vast frozen complexes are like 'interstellar glaciers' that could deliver a massive water supply to new solar systems that will be born in the region," said study coauthor Phil Korngut, the instrument scientist for SPHEREx at Caltech in Pasadena, California. "It's a profound idea that we are looking at a map of material that could rain on nascent planets and potentially support future life."
Managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, the SPHEREx observatory launched March 11, 2025, and has the unique ability to see the sky in 102 colors, each representing a different wavelength of infrared light that offers distinctive information about galaxies, stars, planet-forming regions, and other cosmic features. By late 2025, SPHEREx had completed the first of four all-sky infrared maps of the universe, charting the positions of hundreds of millions of galaxies in 3D to help answer major questions about the cosmos, including those about the origins of water and life.
Icy origins
Using the SPHEREx maps of various icy molecules, the study's authors, working on the CfA-led Interstellar Ices project, were able to look deep into many molecular clouds in the Cygnus X and North American Nebula regions of the Milky Way. In the densest areas, where the amount of dust is greatest, dark filamentary lanes block the visible light from the stars behind. With its infrared eye, the space telescope also revealed where the different ices, which absorb specific wavelengths of infrared light that would pass through the clouds if they consisted only of dust, are at their densest.
This finding supports the hypothesis that interstellar ice forms on the surface of tiny dust particles, which are no larger than particles found in the smoke from a candle, and that the dense regions of dust shield the ices from the intense ultraviolet radiation emitted by newborn stars. However, not all ices are treated the same way in the interstellar medium.
"We can investigate the environmental factors that contribute to different ice formation rates across large areas of interstellar space," said study co-author Gary Melnick, an astronomer at the CfA and the lead of the Interstellar Ices project. "The SPHEREx mission's 'big picture' view provides valuable new information you can't get when zooming in on a small region."
Within this broad perspective, added Melnick, SPHEREx can do something ground-based observatories cannot: detect varying amounts of water and carbon dioxide, two ices that respond differently to environmental factors. For example, the presence of intense ultraviolet light from nearby massive young stars, or the heating of these dust grains by that light, affects the abundances of different ices in distinct ways.
This is just the beginning for this mission. Observations from SPHEREx will provide scientists with a powerful tool to explore the various components of our galaxy, the physics of the interstellar medium that lead to star and planet formation, and the chemical processes that deliver molecules essential for life to newly formed planets.
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About SPHEREx
The mission is managed by NASA JPL for the agency's Astrophysics Division within the Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The telescope and the spacecraft bus were built by BAE Systems in Boulder, Colorado. The science analysis of the SPHEREx data is being conducted by a team of scientists at 13 institutions across the U.S. and in South Korea and Taiwan, led by Principal Investigator Jamie Bock, who is based at Caltech with a joint JPL appointment, and by JPL Project Scientist Olivier Dore. Data is processed and archived at IPAC at Caltech in Pasadena, which manages JPL for NASA. The SPHEREx dataset is freely available to scientists and the public. For more information about the SPHEREx mission visit: https://science.nasa.gov/mission/spherex/
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About the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian
The Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian is a collaboration between Harvard and the Smithsonian designed to ask--and ultimately answer--humanity's greatest unresolved questions about the nature of the universe. The Center for Astrophysics is headquartered in Cambridge, MA, with research facilities across the U.S. and around the world.
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Original text here: https://www.cfa.harvard.edu/news/interstellar-glaciers-nasas-spherex-maps-vast-galactic-ice-regions
'Interstellar Glaciers': NASA's SPHEREx Maps Vast Galactic Ice Regions
PASADENA, California, April 16 (TNSres) -- NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory issued the following news:
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'Interstellar Glaciers': NASA's SPHEREx Maps Vast Galactic Ice Regions
The water, carbon dioxide, and carbon monoxide ices are attached to the surface of tiny dust particles in clouds spanning hundreds of light-years across.
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NASA's SPHEREx (Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization, and Ices Explorer) mission has mapped interstellar ice at an unprecedented scale. Covering regions in our Milky Way galaxy more than 600 light-years across, the ice was found
... Show Full Article
PASADENA, California, April 16 (TNSres) -- NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory issued the following news:
* * *
'Interstellar Glaciers': NASA's SPHEREx Maps Vast Galactic Ice Regions
The water, carbon dioxide, and carbon monoxide ices are attached to the surface of tiny dust particles in clouds spanning hundreds of light-years across.
*
NASA's SPHEREx (Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization, and Ices Explorer) mission has mapped interstellar ice at an unprecedented scale. Covering regions in our Milky Way galaxy more than 600 light-years across, the ice was foundinside giant molecular clouds -- vast regions of gas and dust where dense clumps of matter collapse under gravity, giving birth to stars. A study describing these findings published Wednesday in The Astrophysical Journal.
One of SPHEREx's main goals is to map the chemical signatures of various types of interstellar ice. This ice includes molecules like water, carbon dioxide, and carbon monoxide, which are vital to the chemistry that allows life to develop. Researchers believe these ice reservoirs, attached to the surfaces of tiny dust grains, are where most of the universe's water is formed and stored. The water in Earth's oceans -- and the ices in comets and on other planets and moons in our galaxy -- originates from these regions.
"These vast frozen complexes are like 'interstellar glaciers' that could deliver a massive water supply to new solar systems that will be born in the region," said study coauthor Phil Korngut, the instrument scientist for SPHEREx at Caltech in Pasadena, California. "It's a profound idea that we are looking at a map of material that could rain on nascent planets and potentially support future life."
Thanks to its spectral capabilities, SPHEREx can measure the amounts of various ices and molecules, such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, in and around molecular clouds, helping scientists better understand their composition and environment.
Although space telescopes such as NASA's James Webb Space Telescope and the agency's retired Spitzer have detected water, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, and other icy molecules throughout our galaxy, the SPHEREx observatory is the first infrared mission specifically designed to find such molecules over the entire sky via the mission's large-scale spectral survey.
"We expected to detect these ices in front of individual bright stars: The light from a star acts like a spotlight, revealing any ice in the space between us and that star. But this is something different," said lead author Joseph Hora, an astronomer at the Center for Astrophysics (CfA) at Harvard & Smithsonian in Cambridge, Massachusetts. "When looking along the galactic plane -- where most of the stars, gas, and dust of our galaxy are concentrated -- there's a lot of diffuse background light shining through entire dust clouds, and SPHEREx can see the spatial distribution of the ices they contain in incredible detail."
Managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, the SPHEREx observatory launched March 11, 2025, and has the unique ability to see the sky in 102 colors, each representing a different wavelength of infrared light that offers distinctive information about galaxies, stars, planet-forming regions, and other cosmic features. By late 2025, SPHEREx had completed the first of four all-sky infrared maps of the universe, charting the positions of hundreds of millions of galaxies in 3D to help answer major questions about the cosmos, including those about the origins of water and life.
Icy origins
Using the SPHEREx maps of various icy molecules, the study's authors were able to look deep into many molecular clouds in the Cygnus X and North American Nebula regions of the Milky Way. In the densest areas, where the amount of dust is greatest, dark filamentary lanes block the visible light from the stars behind. With its infrared eye, the space telescope also revealed where the different ices -- which absorb specific wavelengths of infrared light that would pass through the clouds if they consisted only of dust -- are at their densest.
This finding supports the hypothesis that interstellar ice forms on the surface of tiny dust particles, which are no larger than particles found in candle smoke, and that the dense regions of dust shield the ices from the intense ultraviolet radiation emitted by newborn stars. However, not all ices are treated the same way in the interstellar medium.
"We can investigate the environmental factors that contribute to different ice formation rates across large areas of interstellar space," said study coauthor Gary Melnick, also an astronomer at the CfA. "The SPHEREx mission's 'big picture' view provides valuable new information you can't get when zooming in on a small region."
Within this broad perspective, adds Melnick, SPHEREx can do something ground-based observatories cannot: detect varying amounts of water and carbon dioxide, two ices that respond differently to environmental factors. For example, the presence of intense ultraviolet light from nearby massive young stars or the heating of these dust grains by that light affects the abundances of different ices in distinct ways.
This is just the beginning for the mission. Observations from SPHEREx will provide scientists with a powerful tool to explore the various components of our galaxy, the physics of the interstellar medium that lead to star and planet formation, and the chemical processes that deliver molecules essential for life to newly formed planets.
More about SPHEREx
The mission is managed by JPL for the agency's Astrophysics Division within the Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The telescope and the spacecraft bus were built by BAE Systems in Boulder, Colorado. The science analysis of the SPHEREx data is being conducted by a team of scientists at 13 institutions across the U.S. and in South Korea and Taiwan, led by Principal Investigator Jamie Bock, who is based at Caltech with a joint JPL appointment, and by JPL Project Scientist Olivier Dore. Data is processed and archived at IPAC at Caltech in Pasadena, which manages JPL for NASA. The SPHEREx dataset is freely available to scientists and the public.
For more information about the SPHEREx mission visit: https://science.nasa.gov/mission/spherex/
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Original text here: https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/interstellar-glaciers-nasas-spherex-maps-vast-galactic-ice-regions/
