Recently James Webb it gives us so many beautiful images that we forget that there are many other space telescopes out there that map the sky. One of them is WISE, an instrument that was launched in 2009 to study objects outside our solar system. Now thanks to the pictures he took and as part of the project NEOVIZdesigned to capture near-Earth objects such as asteroids and comets, NASA has built a good 12 years timelapse which depicts the sky as we have never seen it before.
Just as it happens with images of James Webb, it’s important to note that his function is not to make pretty wallpapers. NEOWISE sky images have scientific value very important. However, we cannot deny the evidence that they are also precious.
Now, putting the evidence aside, that the role of the NEOWISE project? And just as important, what can we see in the pictures taken by your space telescope?
From WISE to NEOWISE
Wide Angle Infrared Viewer (WISE) – space telescope, works in the infrared range. It was launched by NASA in 2009 to later be placed in hibernation in 2011. However, in 2013 it was up and running again, starting the hard work that continues to this day. In fact, the scientists behind its creation did not expect that its lifetime in the sky could be so long.
After this reactivation, the telescope was immersed in a new project called NEOVIZfocused on behavior analysis near-Earth objects (NEO). Data from this project is collected every six months and published annually. And it was this collection of two years of data that NASA used to construct this interesting time-lapse sky survey.
Much more than a map of the sky
In fact, that sky map they built from NEOWISE data has a lot of features. For example, location hundreds of millions of objects, as well as the amount of infrared light they emit. This allows you to get a better idea of how they behave. And this is especially helpful with brown dwarfs.
These are substellar objects that do not have enough mass to support the nuclear fusion reactions of hydrogen, which stars use as fuel. Thanks to NASA time lapse, 260 brown dwarfs have been identified. In addition, it has become possible to study Y dwarfs, cooler brown dwarfs, in detail, providing very useful information “about the efficiency of star formation and their synchronization in space.” evolution of our galaxy“.
And if knowing how stars form wasn’t enough, with this sky map, that too is possible. analyze distant black holes, since WISE images can identify bursts of infrared light from clouds of matter that churn around black holes. This is a great advantage because it allows you to detect and study them at a great distance.
In short, this timelapse, in addition to a beautiful image, is live map, which can give us some very interesting facts about the universe. Something that NASA scientists could never have imagined. In fact, as one of them explained in a statement, Peter Eisenhardtthey never expected to be able to get so much data.
And it’s only just begun, with two more sky charts expected in 2023. NASA scientists can learn a lot from these images. For now, we can just enjoy watching them. Nothing happens either.
Source: Hiper Textual
