{"id":6629,"date":"2010-01-27T16:09:41","date_gmt":"2010-01-27T16:09:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/nasas-wise-eye-spies-near-earth-asteroid\/"},"modified":"2010-01-27T16:09:41","modified_gmt":"2010-01-27T16:09:41","slug":"nasas-wise-eye-spies-near-earth-asteroid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/space-station\/nasas-wise-eye-spies-near-earth-asteroid.php","title":{"rendered":"NASA’s WISE Eye Spies Near-Earth Asteroid"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"near-Earth<\/span>
The red dot at the center of this image is the first near-Earth asteroid discovered by NASA's Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE <\/span>› Full image and caption<\/a><\/span><\/div>
NASA<\/span>'s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer<\/span>, or WISE<\/span>, has spotted its first never-before-seen near-Earth asteroid, the first of hundreds it is expected to find during its mission <\/span>to map the whole sky in infrared light. There is no danger of the newly discovered asteroid <\/span>hitting Earth<\/span>.<\/span>

The near-Earth object, designated 2010 AB78, was discovered by WISE Jan. 12<\/span>. The mission<\/span>'s sophisticated software picked out the moving object against a background of stationary stars. As WISE <\/span>circled Earth, scanning the sky above, it observed the asteroid several times during a period of one-and-a-half days before the object moved beyond its view. Researchers then used the University of Hawaii's 2.2-meter (88-inch) visible-light telescope near the summit of Mauna Kea to follow up and confirm the discovery.<\/span><\/p>

The asteroid <\/span>is currently about 158 million kilometers (98 million miles) from Earth<\/span>. It is estimated to be roughly 1 kilometer (0.6 miles) in diameter and circles the sun in an elliptical orbit tilted to the plane of our solar system. The object comes as close to the sun <\/span>as Earth<\/span><\/a>, but because of its tilted orbit, it will not pass very close to Earth <\/span>for many centuries. This asteroid <\/span>does not pose any foreseeable impact threat to Earth<\/span>, but scientists will continue to monitor it.<\/span><\/p>

Near-Earth objects are asteroids <\/span>and comets <\/span>with orbits that pass relatively close to Earth<\/span>'s path around the sun. In extremely rare cases of an impact, the objects may cause damage to Earth's surface<\/span>. An asteroid <\/span>about 10 kilometers (6 miles) wide is thought to have plunged into our planet 65 million years ago, triggering a global disaster and killing off the dinosaurs.<\/span><\/p>

Additional asteroid <\/span>and comet detections will continue to come from WISE<\/span>. The observations will be automatically sent to the clearinghouse for solar system <\/span>bodies, the Minor Planet Center in Cambridge, Mass., for comparison against the known catalog of solar system <\/span>objects. A community of professional and amateur astronomers will provide follow-up observations, establishing firm orbits for the previously unseen objects.<\/span><\/p>

\"This is just the beginning,\" said Ned Wright, the mission's principal investigator from UCLA. \"We've got a fire hose of data pouring down from space<\/span>.\"<\/span><\/p>

On Jan. 14, the WISE mission<\/span> began its official survey of the entire sky in infrared light, one month after it rocketed into a polar orbit around Earth from Vandenberg Air Force Base<\/span> in California. By casting a wide net, the mission will catch all sorts of cosmic objects, from asteroids in our own solar system to galaxies billions of light-years away. Its data will serve as a cosmic treasure map, pointing astronomers and telescopes, such as NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope and the upcoming James Webb Space Telescope, to the most interesting finds.<\/span><\/p>

WISE is expected to find about 100,000 previously unknown asteroids <\/span>in our main asteroid belt<\/span>, a rocky ring of debris between the orbits of Mars <\/span>and Jupiter<\/span>. It will also spot hundreds of previously unseen near-Earth objects.<\/span><\/p>

By observing infrared light, WISE <\/span>will reveal the darkest members of the near-Earth object population -- those that don't reflect much visible light. The mission will contribute important information about asteroid and comet sizes. Visible-light estimates of an asteroid<\/span>'s size can be deceiving, because a small, light-colored space rock can look the same as a big, dark one. In infrared, however, a big dark rock will give off more of a thermal, or infrared glow, and reveal its true size. This size information will give researchers a better estimate of how often Earth can expect potentially devastating impacts.<\/span><\/p>

\"We are thrilled to have found our first new near-Earth object<\/span>,\" said Amy Mainzer of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory<\/span> in Pasadena, Calif. Mainzer is the principal investigator of NEOWISE<\/span>, a program to mine the collected WISE <\/span>data for new solar system objects. \"Many programs are searching for near-Earth objects using visible light, but some asteroids are dark, like pavement, and don't reflect a lot of sunlight. But like a parking lot, the dark objects heat up and emit infrared light that WISE <\/span>can see.\"<\/span><\/p>

\"It is great to receive the first of many anticipated near-Earth object discoveries by the WISE system<\/span>,\" said Don Yeomans, manager of NASA's Near-Earth Object Program<\/span> Office at JPL<\/span>. \"Analysis of the WISE <\/span>data will go a long way toward understanding the true nature of this population.\"<\/span><\/p>

JPL manages the WISE mission<\/span> for NASA's Science Mission Directorate<\/span>, Washington. The principal investigator, Edward Wright, is at UCLA<\/span>. The mission was competitively selected under NASA's Explorers <\/span>Program managed by the Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. The science instrument was built by the Space Dynamics Laboratory, Logan, Utah, and the spacecraft was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies <\/span>Corp., Boulder, Colo. Science <\/span>operations and data processing take place at the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center at the California Institute of Technology<\/span> in Pasadena. Caltech manages JPL <\/span>for NASA<\/span>. The ground-based observations are partly supported by the National Science Foundation<\/span>. ?<\/span><\/p>

More information is online at http:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wise<\/a>, http:\/\/wise.astro.ucla.edu<\/a> and http:\/\/www.jpl.nasa.gov\/wise<\/a> .<\/span><\/p>

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