NASA’s new space telescope to start hunt for stealth asteroids
November 27th, 2009 - 12:33 pm ICT by ANI ( Leave a comment )London, November 27 (ANI): NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) is all set to start its hunt for stealth asteroids.
According to a report in New Scientist, WISE, which headed to the launch pad last week, will map the entire sky in infrared.
It will spot everything from nearby cool, failed stars to intense, 10-billion-year-old starburst galaxies.
The telescope will also be able to distinguish objects like asteroids and comets from more distant stars.
WISE is expected to find about 100,000 new asteroids in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter and hundreds of asteroids that pass close to Earth.
It will be especially good at seeing dark objects that are nearly impossible to find using existing ground-based telescopes, as the objects radiate heat that WISE will see.
The telescope will also be able to spot Jupiter-sized objects up to 60,000 astronomical units away.
The distribution of comet paths has suggested that a very large planet could be lurking at 25,000 AU, according to WISE project scientist Peter Eisenhardt of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.
WISE will be looking for it. (ANI)
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Tags: asteroid belt, asteroids, astronomical units, comet, comets, distant stars, infrared survey, jet propulsion laboratory, jupiter, launch pad, nasa, new scientist, new space telescope, pasadena california, peter eisenhardt, project scientist, starburst galaxies, stealth, telescopes, wise project
