NASA Wise Launches

NASA launched its Wise (Wide Field-Infrared Survey Explorer–I guess Wise is catchier than Wfise) spacecraft at 6 a.m. this morning. The telescope was launched on a Delta 2 rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base in central California. The mission originates from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Labs and is a $320 million operation.

The Wise’s mission is to provide a comprehensive map of the entire sky and locate hidden asteroids, comets and other objects that give off heat or infrared. It’ll spend the first month checking its instruments before beginning mapping. The Wise will provide a starting point from which other spacecraft will pick up and focus on in the future.

Wise is expected to locate brand new astronomical objects that have never been seen previously. It’ll be able to locate dark objects by using infrared that is hundreds of times more sensitive than anything used before. Wise will also help to locate any potential hazards to Earth, such as nearby asteroids or comets. [via BBC and AP] [Picture: NASA/JPL]