Gallery: WISE's Greatest Hits

By Nancy Atkinson - February 11, 2011 at 12:28 PM UTC | Site News
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The WISE mission is now over, with the spacecraft taking its final image on Feb. 1, 2011. WISE was a "cool" infrared mission, with the optics chilled to less than 20 degrees centigrade above absolute zero (20 Kelvins). In its low Earth orbit (523 km above the ground), the spacecraft explored the entire Universe and collected infrared light coming from everywhere in space and studied asteroids, the coolest and dimmest stars, and the most luminous galaxies. Expect to hear and see more from WISE, however in the future. More images will be released from the team in April and in the spring of 2012. Here's a look back at some of the great images from WISE's 13 months in space:

[caption id="attachment_52088" align="aligncenter" width="580" caption="The red dot at the center of this image is the first near-Earth asteroid discovered by NASA's Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA"]

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[caption id="attachment_55520" align="aligncenter" width="580" caption="The red smudge at the center of this picture is the first comet discovered by NASA's Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA "]

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[caption id="attachment_56448" align="aligncenter" width="516" caption="The immense Andromeda galaxy, also known as Messier 31 or simply M31, is captured in full in this February 2010 image from WISE. credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA"]

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[caption id="attachment_56449" align="aligncenter" width="516" caption="NGC 3603, as seen by WISE. credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA"]

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[caption id="attachment_79245" align="aligncenter" width="580" caption="NGC 1514, sometimes called the Crystal Ball nebula shows a new double ring feature in an image from WISE. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA"]

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[caption id="attachment_64315" align="aligncenter" width="580" caption="This image from WISE shows the Tadpole nebula. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA"]

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[caption id="attachment_64986" align="aligncenter" width="570" caption="The Heart and Soul nebulae are seen in this infrared mosaic from WISE. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA "]

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[caption id="attachment_70934" align="aligncenter" width="580" caption="An image released in August 2010 from WISE image of the Small Magellanic Cloud. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/WISE Team"]

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[caption id="attachment_81624" align="aligncenter" width="580" caption="This oddly colorful nebula is the supernova remnant IC 443 as seen by WISE. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA"]

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[caption id="attachment_83225" align="aligncenter" width="580" caption="The last image that will ever be taken by the WISE spacecraft. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/WISE Team"]

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And if you want to see how it all started, here's a video of WISE's launch:

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson is a space journalist and author with a passion for telling the stories of people involved in space exploration and astronomy. She is currently retired from daily writing, but worked at Universe Today for 20 years as a writer and editor. She also contributed articles to The Planetary Society, Ad Astra (National Space Society), New Scientist and many other online outlets.

Her 2019 book, "Eight Years to the Moon: The History of the Apollo Missions,” shares the untold stories of engineers and scientists who worked behind the scenes to make the Apollo program so successful, despite the daunting odds against it. Her first book “Incredible Stories From Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos” (2016) tells the stories of 37 scientists and engineers that work on several current NASA robotic missions to explore the solar system and beyond.

Nancy is also a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador, and through this program, she has the opportunity to share her passion of space and astronomy with children and adults through presentations and programs. Nancy's personal website is nancyatkinson.com