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NASA WISE Satellite Blasts Into Space
coondoggie writes "After a three day delay, NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer this morning blasted into space courtesy of a Delta II rocket and will soon begin bathing the cosmos with infrared light, picking up the glow of hundreds of millions of objects and producing millions of images. The space agency says the WISE spacecraft will circle Earth over the poles, scanning the entire sky one-and-a-half times in nine months. The idea behind the spacecraft is to uncover objects never seen before, including the coolest stars, the universe's most luminous galaxies and some of the darkest near-Earth asteroids and comets."
for the infrared flashbulb light to bounce back. Plus, won't this contribute to galactic warming? NASA under Barack Obama is clearly in league with the Italians who are out to destroy America's universe.
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I am only interested in the coolest, most popular, stars.
Sorry about the mess.
Is it really "bathing" the cosmos? Don't most orbiting observatories just have sensors, not emitters?
I'm pretty sure we're talking passive sensors here, so it's not going to be "bathing the cosmos with infrared light" as much as it's going to be bathing in the infrared light of the cosmos. If scientists hadn't stopped writing in Latin, we wouldn't have these little word order screwups, now would we?
But it's good it will be finding the coolest stars. Aside from giving us new insights into the age of the universe and stellar evolution, it'll give NASA something to boast about on Facebook.
Proud member of the Weirdo-American community.
The summary says it will be "bathing the cosmos with infrared light". What is this supposed to mean? The spacecraft will be detecting light, but will not be emitting it in any substantial quantity. In fact, WISE will be emitting very little infrared light at all (even for a spacecraft), as it is being kept cool for the next 10 months or so with an onboard supply of solid hydrogen.
Bathing the cosmos in infrared light? Did NASA launch an intergalactic flash light?
More likely to turn around and scan the earth for "the glow of hundreds of millions of objects."
Seriously coondoggie, that's not how it works. This is an IR detector. Speed of light limitations, not to mention power requirements for umping enough IR into the sky to see any reflections, I mean... wow.
So how long till this thing is pointed downward?
um, I hope that isn't what it's supposed to do, because if it's an active IR system, it's gonna be waiting billions of years to get a return signal.
I think what you mean is it'll be detecting the IR that is already out there.
...will soon begin bathing the cosmos with infrared light...
Uhm, yeah, I'm pretty sure that's not true ;-)
Wouldn't that scan complete one sky in 6 months? It's kind of strange to report that it will do 1.5 in 9.
This satellite will constantly change the channels of millions of models of television sets.
Not to mention contribute to global warming.
And if it emits too much infrared radiation, it may even set the Van Allen belt on fire!
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I think it would be interesting to see if this thing picks up any sign of ETI... You could make the argument that initial communications for ETI might be in the infrared spectrum, as this is what is required to search for asteroids that might wipe out your home world. Any sufficiently intelligent species should have such an early warning system, indeed - you might see that as a necessary capability for an "intelligent" species.
Brawndo: It's what plants crave!
I wonder if this will find any stars closer to the earth that proxima centari?
It would be interesting if it found a brown or red dwarf companion to our star which orbits out beyond the ort cloud. An Ion or VASIMIR powered probe to this star would be cool and feasible even if it were up to 1/2 a light year away.
What would everyone think if we found out that our solar system is just another binary star system amonst the trillions and quadrillions of other multiple star systems out there....
Tsukasa: All I really want, is to be left alone...
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I'm sure "SlashdotMedia" will improve on all the wonders that Dice Holdings blessed us all with
What would everyone think if we found out that our solar system is just another binary star system amonst the trillions and quadrillions of other multiple star systems out there...
The average person wouldn't give a gnat's fart, and most wouldn't have a clue what you are even talking about.
...or we'll have a completely useless and repetitive discussion about how badly written the article is, and see nothing about the actual issue itself. I've waded all the way down the page in search of an actual insightful post and have so far been disappointed.
I mean, so TFS/TFA/whatever screwed up. OK! Enough already! I Fucking get it! Now can we move on?
Jeez!
Drill baby drill - on Mars
Hear hear!
Instead of going to some half-assed article from networkworld, why aren't we linking to the actual NASA WISE site? Original sources, people. It's not that hard.
I skimmed the summary not even noticing the stupid "bathing" thing', and then guess what 99% of the comments here are about?
Every time a summary has the tiniest little compiler error in it, no matter what it's about, any interest that might have been gleaned from TFA is lost. All you karma whores storm in like a Black Friday Walmart crowd trying to score your 5, Funny first posts and you fill up this board with this redundantly unfunny goofballing- "huh huh huh it's bathing the cosmos not the other way around huh huh huh"! My heart pains for any infrared astronomer out there drowning in this shit.
I am a journalist, and I will not be denied the right to use "bathing the cosmos". It is, in my view, and elegant turn of phrase. Please do not bother me with all this science nonsense about sensors.
Now excuse me, I have to get off to my 2nd job. It's not easy being a journalist these days. The paper could go belly-up any time. I moonlight writing advertising copy for real estate agents. There are tiny cabins that need to be described as "cozy", and houses needing tree work that need to be described as "nestled in the woods".
For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
What sort of contingency do they have for sats like this? Do they just fabricate another one and try again in a year or two?
A lot of this depends on how timely a given probe team makes the data available on the net. For example, earlier this year hobbyists measured out of ring plane bumps on Saturns rings during Saturn's vernal equinox. Then the rings were edge-on to the Sun and tiny out-of-plane excursions cast measurable shadows on the reset of the ring.
A counter-example the Kepler project. They are NOT putting raw data on the web yet for the public to anyalyze. They probably have a private website somewhere with the data.
One of the most melancholy facts about astromony is that that while at this time and for the near future we have a civilization capable of supporting advanced orbital telescopes, the solar system is currently positioned pretty much in the center of glactic plane--safer from intergalactic bombardment by cosmic rays, but also our view is clouded by interference from so many local objects that we cannot see as much, or as far, or as far back, as would be if the solar system happened to be in the part of its phase where its orbit kind of bobs up or down out of the galactic plan for a few hundred thousand years.
The next time we'll have a clear view will be about 17 million years from now. That's for the northern sky. Add another 35 million years to that before we get a clear view to the south. I hope we're still here by then.
Where did you infer a link between this satellite and "apocalypse and rapture"? And where does that indicate as to being 2012?
IF (it's in the movie "2012") THEN
just say "The 2012 movie" '//****I haven't had a chance to see it yet. I don't want it to be spoiled.
ELSE
WTF?
END IF
NASA UNWISE Satellite Blasts Into Earth.
Comment: “I’m more of a down-to-earth kind of satellite.”
More opposite news here on the opposite network. Stay tuned!
Any sufficiently advanced intelligence is indistinguishable from stupidity.
Typically a "bath" is a complete immersion in a liquid. The result desired varies from chemical treatment to cleaning to coating. The idea is a complete, no exposed surface left untouched, coverage.
Good judgement comes from experience, and experience comes from bad judgement.
- W. Wriston, former Citibank CEO
Vacuum is a pretty good thermal insulator. And running electricity through detectors is a pretty good way to heat them up. Without many cold molecules around to hit those sensors they'll have a hard time dissipating that heat.
So, no.
One that knows the difference between inches and cm?
"The space agency says the WISE spacecraft will circle Earth over the poles, scanning the entire sky one-and-a-half times in nine months."
Maybe I am missing something but isn't 1.5 times in nine months the same thing as once every six months?
Why would you express something like that? It's like saying that gas costs 3.75 per 1.5 gallons.
...so this project is run by a bunch of wiseguys? ...sorry - had to do it
A man spends the first half of his life accumulating stuff, the second trying to get rid of it all.
I say we drop a small (or perhaps LARGE) thermonuclear bomb as far as we can into Jupiter and start it burning.
Jupiter is probably just waiting for us to light it up. We have ignition!
Perhaps then we could have our binary system. And you weenies would shut up.
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Extracting sunbeams from
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