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    "story_id": "mp-2026-08-11-027",
    "source_story_id": "tmp-story-spherex-flight-artifacts",
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    "headline": "SPHEREx Found New Ghosts in Its First Survey",
    "slug": "spherex-found-new-ghosts-in-its-first-survey",
    "dek": "Flight data confirmed some predicted detector artifacts, changed others and revealed effects the laboratory had missed.",
    "summary": "Flight data confirmed some predicted detector artifacts, changed others and revealed effects the laboratory had missed.",
    "body_text": "The SPHEREx team catalogs low-level optical and electronic artifacts in first-survey images from six HAWAII-2RG detectors, including cosmic-ray signatures, crosstalk and unresponsive pixels. Some in-flight behavior matched laboratory expectations; other effects differed or appeared unexpectedly. Documenting those signatures lets the science pipeline mitigate false structure before all-sky spectroscopy is interpreted. The report is an instrument-calibration study, not a new astronomical discovery from the affected pixels.",
    "why_it_matters": "Flight data confirmed some predicted detector artifacts, changed others and revealed effects the laboratory had missed.",
    "limitations": [
      "Some in-flight behavior matched laboratory expectations; other effects differed or appeared unexpectedly.",
      "The report is an instrument-calibration study, not a new astronomical discovery from the affected pixels."
    ],
    "importance": 8,
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    "first_published_at": "2026-08-11T09:00:00.000-04:00",
    "modified_at": "2026-08-11T09:00:00.000-04:00",
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        "text": "Flight data confirmed some predicted detector artifacts, changed others and revealed effects the laboratory had missed.",
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        "qualification": "Some in-flight behavior matched laboratory expectations; other effects differed or appeared unexpectedly."
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    "tags": [
      "SPHEREx",
      "detectors",
      "calibration",
      "space telescopes"
    ],
    "image_url": null,
    "corrections": []
  },
  "sources": [
    {
      "source_id": "source-2026-08-11-016",
      "title": "arXiv preprint 2608.09862",
      "publisher": "arXiv",
      "url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.09862",
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      "published_at": "2026-08-10T13:00:00.000-04:00",
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    "name": "The Machine Press",
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    "title": "SPHEREx Found New Ghosts in Its First Survey",
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