[meteorite-list] NEOWISE: A Yearlong Look at the Sky

[Ron Baalke]

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=4444

NEOWISE: A Yearlong Look at the Sky
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
January 15, 2015

NASA's Near-Earth Object Wide-field Survey Explorer (NEOWISE) spacecraft 
discovered and characterized 40 near-Earth objects (NEOs) in the first 
year after the mission was re-started in December 2013. Eight of the discoveries 
have been classified as potentially hazardous asteroids (PHAs), based 
on their size and how close their orbits could come to Earth's orbit.

The mission has further observed and characterized 245 previously known 
near-Earth objects. From December 2013 to December 2014, NEOWISE discovered 
three new comets and observed 32 others. One of the others has turned 
into the brightest comet in Earth's night sky in early 2015, comet C/2014 
Q2 (Lovejoy).

A new movie depicts asteroids and comets observed in the past year by 
NEOWISE. It is online at:

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/spaceimages/details.php?id=PIA19101

A series of NEOWISE images of comet Lovejoy is online at:

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/spaceimages/details.php?id=PIA19102

NEOWISE always looks in the dawn and twilight skies - the direction perpendicular 
to a line between Earth and the sun. This unique vantage point makes it 
easy for NEOWISE to spot NEOs that get particularly close to Earth.

Originally called the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE), the 
spacecraft was placed in hibernation in 2011 after its primary mission 
was completed. In September 2013, it was reactivated, renamed NEOWISE 
and assigned a new mission to assist NASA's efforts to identify the population 
of potentially hazardous near-Earth objects. NEOWISE is also characterizing 
previously known asteroids and comets to provide information about their 
sizes and compositions.

NEOWISE is a space telescope that scans the skies for asteroids and comets. 
The telescope sees infrared light, which allows it to pick up the heat 
signature of asteroids and obtain better estimates of their true sizes. 
As a result, NEOWISE can see dark asteroids that are harder for visible-light 
surveys to find. Nearly all of the NEOWISE discoveries have been large 
(hundreds of yards, or meters, wide) and very dark, similar to printer 
toner. When NEOWISE's infrared data on an object is combined with that 
of a visible-light optical telescope, it helps scientists understand the 
object's composition.

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, manages the 
NEOWISE mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. 
The Space Dynamics Laboratory in Logan, Utah, built the science instrument. 
Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. of Boulder, Colorado, built the spacecraft. 
Science operations and data processing take place at the Infrared Processing 
and Analysis Center at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. 
Caltech manages JPL for NASA. For more information about NEOWISE, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/neowise

More information about asteroids and near-Earth objects is at:

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/asteroidwatch


Media Contact

DC Agle
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
818-393-9011
agle at jpl.nasa.gov 

Dwayne Brown
NASA Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1726
dwayne.c.brown at nasa.gov 

2015-018