Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics
Scientific paper
Oct 2010
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2010dps....42.3502m&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #42, #35.02; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 42, p.1016
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
2
Scientific paper
In early January, 2010, the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) began imaging the entire sky with sensitivities in the mid-IR hundreds of times greater than previous surveys. WISE consists of a 40 cm cryogenically-cooled telescope taking simultaneous images at 3.4, 4.6, 12 and 22 microns. WISE has recently completed its first full survey of the sky and is expected to continue flight operations through November. Although WISE itself is an astrophysics mission, NASA's Planetary Science Mission Directorate has funded an enhancement to the WISE project, called "NEOWISE", that is dedicated to serving the individual exposures and extracted source lists, providing an interface for small bodies based on orbital elements, and discovering new moving objects. The WISE bandpasses sample the flux from most inner-Solar System bodies near the peak of their thermal emission, making the survey extremely efficient at detecting and discovering solar system objects. Infrared observations are sensitive to the low albedo objects that are preferentially missed by optical surveys. By the time the cryogen is depleted, NEOWISE will observe 700 Near-Earth Objects (NEOs), 200,000 Main Belt Asteroids, 200 comets, and 1500 Trojan asteroids. The NEOWISE dataset represents a treasure trove of new information on small bodies in our Solar System that will leave a legacy for decades to come. We will present preliminary results of the NEOWISE survey from the first six months of flight operations and will offer an introduction to the community on how to access the data when they become available next year.
This research was funded in part by the NASA (ROSES) NEOO program. This work makes use of data products from the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, which is a joint project of UCLA and JPL/Caltech, funded by NASA.
Bauer James M.
Cutri Roc
Dailey John
Grav Tommy
Mainzer Amanda K.
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