Space is a huge, and very dangerous, place. The more we learn about it, the more impressive it becomes and the clearer it is that humans need to keep studying it to not only understand our place in the universe but also protect ourselves from any threats.
In December 2009, NASA launched the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) with the goal of scanning the sky in infrared. Using instruments that were more powerful and sensitive than anything before it, this craft was able to complete its scan of the entire sky in great detail in just seven months, which is very impressive.
NASA was going to continue to use the craft to study the universe using infrared instruments, but just a few months after completing its initial task, it ran into an issue.
The craft ran out of coolant that was used to move the heat away from the critical instruments. This meant that it could no longer perform the long-distance scans that it was designed for.
It seemed that the WISE mission, while successful, was going to end there and the craft would simply orbit the Earth until it eventually got pulled in and burned up in the atmosphere.
Fortunately, NASA came up with another idea. While the coolant was insufficient for looking deep into space, it was more than enough to look at things that were closer to home, relatively speaking.
So, NASA renamed the mission from WISE to NEOWISE (Near-Earth Object Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer).
In 2013, the systems were brought online and it began scanning for any objects that were coming toward the center of the solar system. These objects, including asteroids and comets, could potentially pose a threat to the Earth, so being able to identify them as soon as possible is essential.
As objects come toward the sun, they heat up and give off infrared signals, which this craft was perfectly suited to detect.
The NEOWISE system operated successfully until November of 2024 when it finally lost its orbit due to heightened solar activity. It went through Earth’s atmosphere and disintegrated harmlessly as was expected to happen.
While in operation, however, it conducted 1.45 million measurements on more than 44,000 objects in our Solar System. It was also used to monitor more than 3000 objects that are considered to be ‘near-Earth’, 215 of which the NEOWISE system originally spotted.
The image above is the final picture taken by NEOWISE before it crashed into Earth’s atmosphere.
For over a decade, NEOWISE was a key component of Earth’s planetary defense system. Nicola Fox, associate administrator, Space Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters put out a statement in which it was said:
“The NEOWISE mission has been an extraordinary success story as it helped us better understand our place in the universe by tracking asteroids and comets that could be hazardous for us on Earth. While we are sad to see this brave mission come to an end, we are excited for the future scientific discoveries it has opened by setting the foundation for the next generation planetary defense telescope.”
The successor to NEOWISE is already planned. It will be called the NEO Surveyor and is set to launch sometime after 2027.
You can see NASA’s farewell video to NEOWISE here:
What an incredible mission.
If you thought that was interesting, you might like to read about a second giant hole has opened up on the sun’s surface. Here’s what it means.
