WISE spacecraft

Article By:

Bhattacharya, Bidushi W. M. Keck Science Department, Claremont McKenna-Pitzer-Scripps Colleges, Claremont, California.

Last reviewed:2014

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1036/1097-8542.YB140356

The NASA Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) is a space-based telescope that imaged the entire celestial sky at infrared wavelengths. Launched in December 2009, WISE spent more than a year taking images to construct two all-sky mosaics at infrared wavelengths of 3.4, 4.6, 12, and 22 μm. Traveling in an Earth-circling orbit, WISE pointed at a different celestial position every 11 s, using movable mirrors within the telescope. The telescope's imaging pattern and cadence allowed astronomers to use these overlapping, time-separated exposures to create two highly detailed mosaics of the entire sky. In addition to identifying galaxies, black holes, stars, and nebulae, WISE detected a number of nearby asteroids and comets. The mission generated a number of publicly accessible data catalogs for continued characterization of celestial objects, and additional catalogs based on WISE data are still being developed by the astronomical community.

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