PRELIMINARY RESULTS FROM NEOWISE: AN ENHANCEMENT TO THE WIDE-FIELD INFRARED SURVEY EXPLORER FOR SOLAR SYSTEM SCIENCE

Journal Article · Sun Apr 10 04:00:00 EDT 2011 · Astrophysical Journal

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/731/1/53· OSTI ID:21574617

Mainzer, A; Bauer, J; Masiero, J; Eisenhardt, P ^[1]; Grav, T ^[2]; Cutri, R M; Dailey, J; Alles, R; Beck, R; Brandenburg, H; Conrow, T; Evans, T; Fowler, J; Jarrett, T ^[3]; McMillan, R S ^[4]; Wright, E ^[5]; Walker, R ^[6]; Jedicke, R; Tholen, D ^[7]; Spahr, T ^[8]

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1. Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91109 (United States)
2. Department of Astronomy, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD (United States)
3. Infrared Processing and Analysis Center, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125 (United States)
4. Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, University of Arizona, 1629 East University Boulevard, Kuiper Space Science Bldg. 92, Tucson, AZ 85721-0092 (United States)
5. UCLA Astronomy, P.O. Box 91547, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1547 (United States)
6. Monterey Institute for Research in Astronomy, Monterey, CA (United States)
7. Institute for Astronomy, University of Hawaii, 2680 Woodlawn Drive, Honolulu, HI 96822 (United States)
8. Minor Planet Center, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138 (United States)

The Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) has surveyed the entire sky at four infrared wavelengths with greatly improved sensitivity and spatial resolution compared to its predecessors, the Infrared Astronomical Satellite and the Cosmic Background Explorer. NASA's 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 2011 February, NEOWISE identified over 157,000 asteroids, including more than 500 NEOs and {approx}120 comets. The NEOWISE data set will enable a panoply of new scientific investigations.

• OSTI ID: 21574617
• Journal Information: Astrophysical Journal, Journal Name: Astrophysical Journal Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 731; ISSN ASJOAB; ISSN 0004-637X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS
ASTEROIDS
COMETS
DATA PROCESSING
GEOLOGIC SURVEYS
GEOPHYSICAL SURVEYS
INFRARED SURVEYS
PROCESSING
SOLAR SYSTEM