Sky map, north up and east left. Drag or use the arrow keys to pan, plus and minus to zoom, 0 to return to the field. Space plays visits, B blinks A and B, D shows what changed. Press question mark for all shortcuts.

Inside field Centered on WISE 0855
N↑ E← SPHEREx · NASA/IPAC IRSAProvenance

Preparing viewer…

Observations

Aligning observations…

How to use SkyShift

What you are looking at

Real infrared images from NASA’s SPHEREx telescope, which photographs the whole sky every six months. Each visit is a set of images of the same patch of sky taken at about the same time.

Spot something that moved

  • Blink flips between two visits, A and B. Anything that jumps has moved.
  • What changed shows the difference: orange is brighter in B, blue is brighter in A. A moving object leaves a blue and orange pair.
  • Find movers checks every star in every visit for you and shows what it found. Each find sets A and B to the two visits that show it best, so press Blink to see it.
  • Click or tap an object, then Track & identify to follow it through every visit and check it against star catalogues.

Find your way around

  • Search any star, galaxy or nebula by name, or enter RA and Dec.
  • Drag to move; scroll or pinch to zoom; click or tap a spot for details.
  • Layers changes the infrared band, switches on colour and adds catalogue markers. The menu at the top left has more tools.
Keyboard shortcuts
← ↑ → ↓
Pan the map (hold Shift for larger steps)
+ −
Zoom in or out
0
Back to the field at the default zoom
Space
Play or pause visits
, .
Previous or next frame
B
Blink A and B
D
Show or hide what changed from A to B
F
Find sources that moved or changed across the visits
T
Track and identify the object at the selected point (or the view centre)
C
Show or hide colour once loaded
I
Open field details
/
Search
?
This help
Esc
Close the open card or panel, then pause

In the thumbnail strip, ← and → move between visits. Double-click zooms in; Shift + double-click zooms out.