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Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer was a NASA infrared astronomy space telescope in the Explorers Program launched in December 2009. WISE discovered thousands of minor planets and numerous star clusters. Its observations also supported the discovery of the first Y-type brown dwarf and Earth trojan asteroid.
WISE performed an all-sky astronomical survey with images in 3.4, 4.6, 12 and 22 μm wavelength range bands, over ten months using a 40 cm (16 in) diameter infrared telescope in Earth orbit. After its solid hydrogen coolant depleted, it was placed in hibernation mode in February 2011.
In 2013, NASA reactivated the WISE telescope to search for near-Earth objects (NEO), such as comets and asteroids, that could collide with Earth.
The reactivation mission was called Near-Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (NEOWISE).
As of August 2023, NEOWISE was 40% through the 20th coverage of the full sky. Science operations and data processing for WISE and NEOWISE take place at the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, California.
The WISE All-Sky (WISEA) data, including processed images, source catalogs and raw data, was released to the public on 14 March 2012, and is available at the Infrared Science Archive. The NEOWISE mission was originally expected to end in early 2025 with the satellite reentering the atmosphere some time after. However, the NEOWISE mission concluded its science survey on 31 July 2024 with the satellite expected to reenter Earth's atmosphere later the same year. This decision was made due to increased solar activity hastening the decay of its orbit and the lack of an onboard propulsion system for orbital maintenance. The onboard transmitter was turned off on 8 August, marking the formal decommissioning of the spacecraft.