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Thursday, 10 December 2009 05:31

When NASA launches the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer into space from California's Vandenberg Air Force Base tomorrow, humans will have the ability to see stars and galaxies that have up till now been invisible to the most advanced instruments.

Nicknamed WISE, the $320 million satellite's 4 million-pixel camera-telescope will make it possible to detect cosmic objects visible only by heat radiation. Most objects in the night sky can't be seen by the naked eye because the light is too faint or travels at wavelengths impossible to perceive without instruments.

WISE is hundreds of thousands of times more powerful than the Infrared Astronomy Satellite it is replacing. IRAS was launched into Earth orbit in 1983 and has a mere 62 pixels in its camera. Even so, it did a spectacular job of mapping heat signals in the night sky.

From its polar orbit 300 miles high, WISE will map the entire sky every six months and will catalogue the strangest objects in the universe, including the "failed stars" known as brown dwarfs and so-called ultraluminous galaxies where stars are formed.

The most practical application of WISE's technology will be in the detection and measurement of thousands of asteroids and near-Earth objects that could prove a danger to the planet. WISE won't displace the Hubble space telescope, but it will "see" objects that esteemed piece of technology can't. They will actually complement each other.

As remarkable as is the WISE technology, it will be dwarfed by the abilities of the next generation of satellites, beginning with the massive James Webb Space Telescope that will be launched in 2014.

Mankind is about to enter the golden age of astronomy.

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