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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.
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Maybe they meant "and will soon begin bathing in the infrared light of the cosmos"
Impossible! Nobody ever mistypes, and nobody ever means things in a non-literal fashion. Your explanation, while seemingly reasonable, fails to account for this!
Clearly what they were referring to is the fact that the WISE observatory is neither at absolute zero, nor a perfect absorber of infrared. Ergo, WISE will both emit and reflect infrared light, which will subsequently bathe the cosmos. Obviously that's useless for the telescope's observations, but it's still true.
Though "bathe" probably isn't the right choice of words either. Infrared light is not sufficient to get you clean. Just an FYI to my fellow slashdotters prior to any family gatherings they may be attending this holiday season. ;)
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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"?
I skimmed the summary not even noticing the stupid "bathing" thing', and then guess what 99% of the comments here are about?
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