The emph{Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer} has surveyed the entire sky at four infrared wavelengths with greatly improved sensitivity and spatial resolution compared to its predecessors, the emph{Infrared Astronomical Satellite} and the emph{Cosmic Background Explorer}. NASAs Planetary Science Division has funded an enhancement to the WISE data processing system called NEOWISE that allows detection and archiving of moving objects found in the WISE data. NEOWISE has mined the WISE images for a wide array of small bodies in our Solar System, including Near-Earth Objects (NEOs), Main Belt asteroids, comets, Trojans, and Centaurs. By the end of survey operations in February 2011, NEOWISE identified over 157,000 asteroids, including more than 500 NEOs and $sim$120 comets. The NEOWISE dataset will enable a panoply of new scientific investigations.
Download