Subscribe free to our newsletters via your
. 24/7 Space News .




IRON AND ICE
WISE Discovers Over 90 Near-Earth Objects
by Staff Writers
Moffett Field CA (SPX) Jul 23, 2010


This image shows the famous Pleiades cluster of stars as seen through the eyes of WISE, or NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer. The mosaic contains a few hundred image frames - just a fraction of the more than one million WISE has captured so far as it completes its first survey of the entire sky in infrared light. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA.

NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE, completed its first survey of the entire sky on July 17, 2010. The mission has generated more than one million images so far, of everything from asteroids to distant galaxies.

So far, WISE has observed more than 100,000 asteroids, both known and previously unseen. Most of these space rocks are in the main belt between Mars and Jupiter. However, some are near-Earth objects, asteroids and comets with orbits that pass relatively close to Earth. WISE has discovered more than 90 of these new near-Earth objects.

The infrared telescope is good at spotting comets that orbit far from Earth and has discovered more than a dozen of these so far. WISE's infrared vision also gives it a unique ability to pick up the glow of cool stars, called brown dwarfs, in addition to distant galaxies bursting with light and energy. These galaxies are called ultra-luminous infrared galaxies. WISE can see the brightest of them.

"The WISE all-sky survey is helping us sift through the immense and diverse population of celestial objects," said Hashima Hasan, WISE Program scientist at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "It's a great example of the high impact science that's possible from NASA's Explorer Program."

The first release of WISE data, covering about 80 percent of the sky, will be delivered to the astronomical community in May of next year. The mission scanned strips of the sky as it orbited around the Earth's poles since its launch last December. WISE always stays over the Earth's day-night line. As the Earth moves around the Sun, new slices of sky come into the telescope's field of view.

It has taken six months, or the amount of time for Earth to travel halfway around the Sun, for the mission to complete one full scan of the entire sky.

For the next three months, the mission will map half of the sky again. This will enhance the telescope's data, revealing more hidden asteroids, stars and galaxies. The mapping will give astronomers a look at what's changed in the sky. The mission will end when the instrument's block of solid hydrogen coolant, needed to chill its infrared detectors, runs out.

"Like a globe-trotting shutterbug, WISE has completed a world tour with 1.3 million slides covering the whole sky," said Edward Wright, the principal investigator of the mission at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Some of these images have been processed and stitched together into a new picture that shows the Pleiades cluster of stars, also known as the Seven Sisters, resting in a tangled bed of wispy dust. The pictured region covers seven square degrees, or an area equivalent to 35 full moons, highlighting the telescope's ability to take wide shots of vast regions of space. The new picture was taken in February.

It shows infrared light from WISE's four detectors in a range of wavelengths. This infrared view highlights the region's expansive dust cloud, through which the Seven Sisters and other stars in the cluster are passing. Infrared light also reveals the smaller and cooler stars of the family.

"WISE is filling in the blanks on the infrared properties of everything in the universe from nearby asteroids to distant quasars," said Peter Eisenhardt of JPL, project scientist for WISE. "But the most exciting discoveries may well be objects we haven't yet imagined exist."

.


Related Links
Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer WISE
Asteroid and Comet Mission News, Science and Technology






Comment on this article via your Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, Hotmail login.

Share this article via these popular social media networks
del.icio.usdel.icio.us DiggDigg RedditReddit GoogleGoogle








IRON AND ICE
Fascinating Images From A New World
Munich, Germany (SPX) Jul 15, 2010
The ESA space probe Rosetta flew past the Lutetia planetoid at around 6 p.m. CEST on Saturday. The OSIRIS camera system, built and developed under the direction of the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research in Katlenburg-Lindau, Germany, provided unique images of this rendezvous. They not only show a large number of craters on the surface of the celestial body, but also individual ... read more


IRON AND ICE
Water On The Moon Is Widespread

Two charged with stealing Neil Armstrong customs form

Scientists debate meaning of moon 'holes'

Science Team To Study Data From China's First Lunar Probe

IRON AND ICE
Orbiter Puts Itself Into Standby Safe Mode

Video Camera Will Show Mars Rover's Touchdown

Wind Cleans Solar Panels

Team Shows Unity During First Month Of Mars Flight Simulation

IRON AND ICE
House Committee Sets Realistic And Sustainable Path For NASA

Children Blast Off To The Moon At Summer Space Camp

Soviet, US astronauts mark 35 years since space handshake

Outer Space, Under Water

IRON AND ICE
China Contributes To Space-Based Information Access A Lot

China Sends Research Satellite Into Space

China eyes Argentina for space antenna

Seven More For Shenzhou

IRON AND ICE
Astrium Will Develop The Atomic Clock Ensemble In Space (ACES) For ESA

Apollo-Soyuz: An Orbital Partnership Begins

NASA Selects Student Experiments For Space Station

Russia Eyes Chinese Spaceships As Backup For Soyuz

IRON AND ICE
NASA Tests Launch Abort System At Supersonic Speeds

Sea Launch Signs Launch Agreement With AsiaSat

ILS Successfully Launches The Echostar XV

Pre-Launch Processing Underway For Ariane 5's Upcoming Launch

IRON AND ICE
Detector Technology Could Help NASA Find Earth-Like Exoplanets

NASA Finds Super-Hot Planet With Unique Comet-Like Tail

Recipes For Renegade Planets

First Directly Imaged Planet Confirmed Around Sun-Like Star

IRON AND ICE
HP dabbling with Windows 7 tablet computer

Sharp to join e-reader business war

Toward A New Generation Of Superplastics

SSTL Kicks Off Small Satellite For Kazakhstan




The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2014 - Space Media Network. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA Portal Reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement,agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. Privacy Statement