Wise Eyes Peering Into the Sky

NASA's new sky probe sends back its first images

On December 14, 2009, NASA's Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) was launched on a Delta II rocket.

During its 10-month mission orbiting the Earth, WISE will take 1.5 million images -- one every 11 seconds -- to produce a catalog recording 99% of the sky.

One thousand times more sensitive than previous infrared space telescopes, WISE will create an unprecedented library of images of our local solar system, our Milky Way galaxy and more faraway points in the universe.

This week, NASA released the first images from WISE. They are remarkable shots, such as this impressive photograph of the Andromeda galaxy, the nearest large galaxy to our Milky Way.

Located 2.5 million light-years from our sun, Andromeda is larger than the Milky Way and contains more stars.

"WISE has worked superbly," said Ed Weiler, associate administrator of the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington, according to a NASA press release. "These first images are proving the spacecraft's secondary mission of helping to track asteroids, comets and other stellar objects will be just as critically important as its primary mission of surveying the entire sky in infrared."

"We've got a candy store of images coming down from space," said Edward (Ned) Wright of UCLA, the principal investigator for WISE.

"Everyone has their favorite flavors, and we've got them all."

GET INVOLVED

• View WISE's first images
  
• Download this month's free night sky map and calendar from Skymaps.com
• Sign a petition to add the option for US taxpayers to contribute to NASA on the IRS 1040 tax form
• Visit NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day Web site

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image: The immense Andromeda galaxy, also known as Messier 31 or simply M31, is captured in full in this new image from NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE. The mosaic covers an area equivalent to more than 100 full moons, or five degrees across the sky. WISE used all four of its infrared detectors to capture this picture (3.4- and 4.6-micron light is colored blue; 12-micron light is green; and 22-micron light is red). Blue highlights mature stars, while yellow and red show dust heated by newborn, massive stars. (credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA)