Latest Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer Stories

April Flowers for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online A critical design test for an infrared sensor that could improve NASA's future ability to detect and track asteroids and comets has been passed. The Near Earth Object Camera's (NEOCam) performance in an environment that mimicked the temperatures and pressures of deep space were assessed by the test. NEOCam will be the key instrument for a proposed new asteroid-hunting space-based telescope for which design and capability details have...

PASADENA, Calif., April 15, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- An infrared sensor that could improve NASA's future detecting and tracking of asteroids and comets has passed a critical design test. (Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO) The test assessed performance of the Near Earth Object Camera (NEOCam) in an environment that mimicked the temperatures and pressures of deep space. NEOCam is the cornerstone instrument for a proposed new space-based...

Brett Smith for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online Using data obtained from a NASA satellite, a Pennsylvania State University astronomer has identified the closest solar system to be found within the past 97 years. According to astronomer Kevin Luhman’s report in the Astrophysical Journal Letters, the newly identified system is a pair of brown dwarf stars and the third-closest system to the Sun. “The distance to this brown dwarf pair is 6.5 light years -- so close that Earth's...

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory The tangle of clouds and stars that lie in Orion's sword is showcased in a new, expansive view from NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE. Orion, the famous hunter, is visible in evening skies throughout the world from about December through April. The constellation appears tranquil and still to the naked eye, but lying in its sword, at what appears to be a slightly fuzzy star, is a turbulent cauldron of stellar birth. WISE scanned the...

redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports - Your Universe Online NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has captured an infrared image of the glowing waves given off by a giant star that was sent hurtling through space after its companion star exploded. Zeta Ophiuchi, the star which is currently speeding through the universe and leaving what is known as a bow shock in its wake, is 20 times more massive and 80,000 times brighter than our sun, according to the US space agency. Scientists believe that...

April Flowers for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online As grand and colorful as it is, our solar system is a fleck in the grander cosmos. Our Milky Way galaxy has hundreds of billions of solar systems, yet it is only just a drop in the sea of galaxies. Galaxy clusters, the rarest and largest of galaxy groupings, can be the hardest to find, which is where NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) becomes helpful. So far, the mission's all-sky infrared maps have revealed one...

Lawrence LeBlond for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online Jovian asteroids that orbit the Sun on the same trajectory as the gas giant Jupiter have been studied more closely by scientists using NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE). These asteroids travel in packs, like hungry wolves stalking their prey, some racing ahead of the gas giant, while others trail behind. The observations of these Jovian predators are the first detailed look at their true colors. Scientists...

Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online Millions of black holes have been discovered, as well as extreme galaxies called hot DOGs using NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) mission. The telescope has helped reveal millions of dusty black hole candidates throughout the universe, and about 1,000 dustier objects that are thought to be the brightest galaxies ever found called dust-obscured galaxies, or hot DOGs. "WISE has exposed a menagerie of hidden objects,"...

WASHINGTON, Aug. 29, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) mission has led to a bonanza of newfound supermassive black holes and extreme galaxies called hot DOGs, or dust-obscured galaxies. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO) Images from the telescope have revealed millions of dusty black hole candidates across the universe and about 1,000 even dustier objects thought to be among the brightest galaxies ever...

WASHINGTON, Aug. 23, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- NASA will host a news teleconference at 1 p.m. EDT, Wednesday, Aug. 29, to announce new discoveries from its Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE). The discoveries are related to the distant universe, including supermassive black holes and rare galaxies. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO ) The briefing participants are: -- Daniel Stern, astronomer, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL),...