WISE (Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer)

WISE (Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer)
Name	WISE (Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer)
Mission type	Infrared space telescope
Operator	NASA
Launch date	2009-12-14
Launch site	Cape Canaveral Air Force Station
Manufacturer	Ball Aerospace
Spacecraft bus	Ball Aerospace bus
Orbit	Low Earth orbit

Contents

WISE (Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer) is a NASA infrared space telescope mission that conducted an all-sky survey in the mid-infrared, revealing populations of asteroids, brown dwarfs, and distant galaxies. Launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station aboard a Delta II rocket and operated by teams at Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Ball Aerospace, and the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, WISE produced datasets that were later reprocessed and reused by projects associated with University of California, Berkeley, Caltech, and the Space Telescope Science Institute.

Mission overview

WISE was conceived within programs overseen by NASA and funded under initiatives influenced by Decadal Survey (astronomy and astrophysics), with instrumentation developed through partnerships including Ball Aerospace and scientific teams from University of Arizona, Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, and MIT. The mission followed precedents set by missions such as IRAS, COBE, and Spitzer Space Telescope and contributed complementary data used by researchers at European Space Agency, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, and Canadian Space Agency. Primary objectives included producing an all-sky infrared atlas to aid surveys by observatories like Hubble Space Telescope, Keck Observatory, Very Large Telescope, and to support catalogs used by Sloan Digital Sky Survey and Pan-STARRS.

The spacecraft bus, supplied by Ball Aerospace, carried a 40 cm cryogenically cooled telescope with detectors manufactured using technologies related to work at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory and laboratories at Raytheon, Teledyne Technologies, and University of Rochester. Instruments included four infrared bands at 3.4, 4.6, 12, and 22 micrometers, whose performance was comparable to heritage from Spitzer Space Telescope instruments and calibration approaches refined by teams from NOAO and National Institute of Standards and Technology. Thermal control and cryogenic systems were influenced by designs used on Infrared Astronomical Satellite and engineering inputs from Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman subcontractors. Science operations integrated scheduling software developed in collaboration with Caltech and data handling pipelines maintained by personnel who had previously worked on WISE precursor missions and projects associated with European Southern Observatory.

WISE executed a repeated full-sky survey in Low Earth orbit that produced calibrated image frames and source catalogs processed by pipelines at facilities linked to NASA Ames Research Center, IPAC, and the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center. Data processing workflows adopted algorithms from teams with experience on Two Micron All Sky Survey, Sloan Digital Sky Survey, and Gaia mission calibration efforts, enabling cross-matches with catalogs from ROSAT, GALEX, and FIRST. The mission released incremental data products to archives such as the IPAC/IRSA and to community projects including researchers at University of Hawaii, Johns Hopkins University, and Princeton University, facilitating follow-up by instruments on Chandra X-ray Observatory and ground-based facilities like Gemini Observatory.

WISE discovered and characterized thousands of near-Earth objects and comets, expanding catalogs used by researchers at Minor Planet Center, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and teams involved with NEOWISE operations; it identified Y-class brown dwarfs that informed theoretical work at University of Cambridge, University of Toronto, and University of California, Berkeley. The survey revealed obscured active galactic nuclei and infrared-luminous galaxies that influenced studies conducted at Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, and Princeton University Observatory, and aided cosmological analyses tied to datasets from Planck (spacecraft) and Herschel Space Observatory. WISE data underpinned discoveries credited in publications with contributors from California Institute of Technology, University of Washington, Columbia University, and Yale University, and fostered citizen science projects hosted by Zooniverse collaborators.

After depletion of cryogen, the mission was reactivated as NEOWISE for asteroid-focused operations under directives involving NASA Planetary Defense Coordination Office and scientific teams at Jet Propulsion Laboratory and University of Arizona. Subsequent projects and proposals drew on WISE heritage for missions and instruments developed at NASA GSFC, Ball Aerospace, and concepts studied by panels convened by National Research Council. Follow-up observations utilized facilities including Keck Observatory, Atacama Large Millimeter Array, and James Webb Space Telescope, while mission data influenced planning for prospective missions such as NEOCam and studies within programs run by European Space Agency and JAXA.

WISE faced technical and programmatic challenges including detector performance concerns and budgetary scrutiny from oversight entities like NASA Office of Inspector General and reviews by panels convened by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine; disputes arose over data proprietorship and proprietary periods involving investigators at Caltech, IPAC, and community stakeholders including teams from University of Arizona and Harvard. The reactivation as NEOWISE generated debate within communities linked to Minor Planet Center and planetary defense researchers about resource allocation and mission priority relative to initiatives championed by National Science Foundation and planetary science advisory groups. Despite controversies, WISE data products remain widely used by scientists at Stanford University, University of Chicago, Cornell University, and international collaborators.

Category:NASA missions Category:Infrared telescopes Category:Space telescopes