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NEOWISE Space Infrared Survey:
NEOWISE is the term used to describe the near-Earth object observing capability
of the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) telescope. WISE uses a
40 cm aperture telescope to observe the entire sky 1.5 times in its 9-month
design lifetime. The cryogens used to cool the telescope are expected
to run out in November 2010. The infrared wavelength regions are centered
at 3.4, 4.6, 12, and 22 microns. The WISE spacecraft is in a nearly polar
orbit with the telescope always directed 90 degrees from the sun's direction.
NEOWISE is an enhancement to the WISE data pipeline that allows new moving
objects to be followed up by ground-based telescopes operating in the visible
region. These follow-up observations ensure that a NEO's orbit will
be secure and the object will not become lost. Because dark asteroids re-radiate
strongly in the infrared, NEOWISE observations can often provide better
estimates for NEO diameters than can optical telescopes. That is, optical
telescopes observe reflected sunlight so they cannot easily tell the difference
between a small bright object and large dark object.
Principal Investigators: Ned Wright (UCLA) for WISE & Amy Mainzer (JPL) for NEOWISE
Look here for additional information on WISE and NEOWISE:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2010-174
http://wise.ssl.berkeley.edu/
Look here for a tally of NEOWISE discoveries of comets and near-Earth objects:
http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/stats/wise/
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