The Wide-field Infra red Survey Explorer (WISE)
Scientists are set to launch an all-seeing telescope with an ability to map the sky hundreds of times greater than other observatories.The Wide-field Infra red Survey Explorer (WISE) will now be launched on Monday after the mission, scheduled for for today, was delayed because of a problem with the spacecraft’s steering engine.WISE, which will blast off from California’s Vandenberg Air Force Base, will scan the entire sky in infra red light in search of never-before-seen asteroids, comets, the coolest and dimmest stars, and the most luminous galaxies.Infra red is light beyond the red part of the rainbow that is invisible to our eyes.The Nasa spacecraft, about the size of a Smart car, will snap 7,500 pictures a day at four different infra red wavelengths and the findings could totally revise the familiar portrait of our solar system.
One of its main tasks is to catalog objects posing a danger to Earth.Some astronomers have speculated the telescope could even reveal a huge gas planet in the outer reaches of our solar system.Peter Eisenhardt, a project scientist at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, told The Times: ‘What we’re doing is opening up the sky in a way that hasn’t been possible before.’It will transform the picture of our solar neighbourhood.’
The £195million satellite will orbit Earth 15 times a day, in low orbit 325 miles above the ground.The mission will last about 10 months, until its supply of solid hydrogen runs out, and will scan the entire sky about one-and-a-half times.Solar panels will provide WISE with the electricity it needs to operate and it will take six months to orbit the sky once.
Santosamaru 