A new infrared eye will catalog millions of unseen cosmic objects
In short: NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) is preparing for a mission to map the entire sky. This video explains how the spacecraft will reveal hidden celestial bodies that have remained invisible to previous surveys.
Launching from Vandenberg Air Force Base on December 9, WISE will circle the Earth over the poles to scan the entire sky 1.5 times over a nine-month period. It is designed to detect the coolest stars, dark asteroids, and highly luminous galaxies using four infrared wavelengths.
The mission's sensitivity is hundreds to hundreds of thousands of times greater than previous surveys, with the goal of cataloging hundreds of millions of objects. This data will act as a navigation chart for major telescopes, including Hubble, Spitzer, Herschel, Sofia, and the James Webb Space Telescope, to target the most significant discoveries.
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Sources
- Summary by Intellect · source: WISE L-20 News Conference
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