Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) Archives

Too Big, Too Soon. Monster Black Hole Seen Shortly After the Big Bang

8 Dec , 2017 by Matt Williams

An international team of astronomers, using multiple observatories, have found the youngest and most distant quasar to date.

NASA’s NEOWISE Missions Spots New Comets

30 Dec , 2016 by Matt Williams

NASA’s NEOWISE mission has been responsible for many interesting finds, the latest of which are two possible comets that could be visible from Earth.

The Next Generation of Exploration: The NEOCam Mission

9 Oct , 2015 by Matt Williams

In February of 2014, NASA put out the call for submissions for the thirteenth mission of their Discovery Program. In keeping with the program’s goal of mounting low-cost, highly focused missions to explore the Solar System, the latest program is focused on missions that look beyond Mars to new research goals. On September 30th, 2015, […]

Here’s How You Can Help With Searching Out Planet Nurseries Beyond The Solar System

7 Jan , 2015 by Elizabeth Howell

With a big universe around us, where the heck do you point your telescope when looking for planets? Bigger observatories are set to head to orbit in the next decade, including NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope and the European Space Agency’s PLATO (PLAnetary Transits and Oscillations of stars). Telling them where to look will be […]

Astronomers Stress the Need for Characterizing the Population of Nearby Potential Earth-Impactors

14 Oct , 2013 by Dan Majaess

The meteor explosion over Russia in February 2013 raised concerns that even small asteroid impactors may wreak some havoc given our heavily populated cities. A new study by NASA scientists aims to improve our understanding of such asteroids that are lurking in Earth’s vicinity. The team, led by Amy Mainzer, noted that only a mere […]

WISE Spacecraft Re-Activated to Hunt for Potentially Hazardous Asteroids

21 Aug , 2013 by Nancy Atkinson

A hibernating spacecraft has been called back into service. The WISE (Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer”) spacecraft that has been sleeping in a polar orbit around Earth for two years will be turned back on next month to hunt for more potentially hazardous asteroids, and perhaps search for an asteroid that NASA could capture and explore […]

An artist's conception of an asteroid collision, which leads to how "families" of these space rocks are made in the belt between Mars and Jupiter. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

How A New Family Tree of Space Rocks Could Better Protect Earth

31 May , 2013 by Elizabeth Howell

In perhaps the neatest astronomical application of geneology yet, astronomers found 28 “hidden” families of asteroids that could eventually show them how some rocks get into orbits that skirt the Earth’s path in space. From scanning millions of snapshots of asteroid heat signatures in the infrared, these groups popped out in an all-sky survey of […]

Eye-Like Helix Nebula Turns Blue in New Image

4 Oct , 2012 by Nancy Atkinson

A combined image of the Helix Nebula from the Spitzer Space Telescope,the Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) and the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE).. Credit: NASA/Caltech The Helix Nebula has been called the “Eye of God,” or the “Eye of Sauron,” and there’s no denying this object appears to be a cosmic eye looking down on […]

Zoom Into the Entire Infrared Sky from WISE

14 Mar , 2012 by Nancy Atkinson

[/caption] Love all the great things you can see in infrared? Then zoom on into the big view of the entire sky from the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) mission. WISE has collected more than 15 trillion bytes of data with 2.7 million images of the sky at infrared light. It’s captured everything from nearby […]

Clusters of Stars Crackle and Pop to Tell the Story of Star Formation

10 Jan , 2012 by Nancy Atkinson

[/caption] Astronomers trying to understand the formation of massive clusters of stars are getting a better idea of how the process works from the latest images and data from the WISE spacecraft. NASA’s Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer has captured a vast stretch of nearly a dozen nebulae popping with new star birth, which is helping […]

Universe TodaySpace and astronomy news