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Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer

The Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) was a space telescope mission launched on December 14, 2009, from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California aboard a Delta II , designed to conduct an all-sky survey in wavelengths to detect and catalog cool, faint objects invisible to visible-light telescopes, such as , asteroids, and ultra-luminous galaxies. The spacecraft, weighing 661 kg and equipped with a 40-cm cryogenic telescope and four infrared detectors operating at wavelengths of 3.4, 4.6, 12, and 22 micrometers, completed its primary survey phase from December 2009 to February 2011, mapping the entire sky 1.5 times during the full cryogenic operation and additional coverage in shorter wavelengths after the solid hydrogen coolant depleted in September 2010. WISE's primary science goals included discovering the coldest brown dwarfs nearest to the Solar System, identifying the most luminous galaxies in the universe, and characterizing the infrared properties of asteroids and other Solar System objects, ultimately producing the AllWISE catalog containing over 747 million infrared sources detected across the sky. In late 2013, the mission was reactivated without cryogen as NEOWISE (Near-Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer), focusing on the detection and characterization of near-Earth objects (NEOs) and other Solar System bodies using the remaining 3.4 and 4.6 micrometer bands, which enabled repeated sky scans—over 21 full-sky equivalents by 2024—to track potentially hazardous asteroids and comets. Key discoveries from NEOWISE include the identification of over 3,000 NEOs and over 290 comets, as well as the spectacular Comet C/2020 F3 (NEOWISE), visible to the naked eye in July 2020, alongside millions of active galactic nuclei. The mission concluded operations on July 31, 2024, with decommissioning on August 8, 2024, followed by atmospheric reentry on November 1, 2024, leaving a legacy of publicly available data through NASA's that continues to support in and planetary defense.

Mission Objectives

Solar System Targets

The Wide-field Survey Explorer (WISE) was designed to detect and characterize a wide array of Solar System objects, with a primary emphasis on minor bodies such as near-Earth objects (NEOs), main-belt asteroids, and Trojans. These observations leveraged WISE's sensitivity to emission from thermally heated surfaces, enabling the identification of objects that are faint or invisible in optical wavelengths due to low albedos. The mission aimed to catalog hundreds of NEOs, including asteroids and comets on Earth-crossing orbits, while surveying hundreds of thousands of main-belt asteroids larger than 3 km in diameter and probing Trojans to refine population models. Thermal modeling formed a cornerstone of WISE's Solar System investigations, using multi-band photometry at wavelengths of 3.4, 4.6, 12, and 22 μm to derive physical properties. By measuring thermal emission fluxes, the mission facilitated estimates of sizes and through standard radiometric techniques, achieving diameter accuracies of about 10% when combined with optical data. For instance, could be determined from the ratio of to optical fluxes, revealing compositional insights such as , low- carbonaceous materials versus higher- S-types. flux measurements enable estimation of diameters largely independent of by modeling thermal emission from the 's surface, often combined with optical H to derive via the ratio of to optical fluxes. Additionally, observations of asymmetries between an 's morning and afternoon sides enabled studies of orbital perturbations via the Yarkovsky effect, improving long-term orbit predictions. The survey extended to outer Solar System populations, targeting objects (KBOs) and comets to detect signatures of dust, ice, and volatile ices in the . WISE's all-sky coverage, with multiple scans per position, was expected to reveal faint thermal emissions from these distant, cold bodies, contributing to understanding their size distributions and surface properties. observations proved particularly advantageous for such low-albedo objects, where thermal reradiation dominates over reflected sunlight. A key goal was the identification of potentially hazardous asteroids (PHAs) among the NEO population, using infrared flux measurements to estimate diameters independent of albedo assumptions. This approach addressed limitations of optical surveys by providing direct size constraints for impact risk assessment. Overall, WISE anticipated coverage of over 150,000 minor planets, yielding statistical insights into size distributions, albedo trends, and population demographics across the and beyond.

Extrasolar Targets

The conducted an all-sky survey in four mid-infrared bands centered at 3.4 μm (), 4.6 μm (W2), 12 μm (W3), and 22 μm (W4) to detect and characterize extrasolar objects invisible or faint at optical wavelengths. This survey targeted cool stars, , and ultracool objects down to spectral types T and Y, leveraging the sensitivity of the W2 band to temperatures below 750 for identifying the nearest and coldest such objects within the solar neighborhood. Expected outcomes included the discovery of around 1,000 new within 25 light-years, potentially revealing the closest star system to . The mission's design enabled the cataloging of hundreds of thousands of these low-mass stellar and substellar objects, providing a comprehensive to study the low end of the and Galactic kinematics. Within the , WISE mapped interstellar dust distributions, star-forming regions, and protoplanetary disks through their thermal mid-infrared emission. The W3 and W4 bands were particularly effective for tracing (PAH) features and warm dust continuum, revealing the structure of molecular clouds and embedded young stellar objects out to distances of several kiloparsecs. Additionally, the survey identified infrared excesses around main-sequence stars indicative of debris disks, offering insights into the architecture and evolution of circumstellar material analogous to our . On extragalactic scales, detected active galactic nuclei (AGN), starburst galaxies, and large-scale cosmic structures by their luminosity, penetrating dust-obscured regions where optical surveys fall short. The instrument's 5σ sensitivity limits of 0.08 mJy (W1), 0.11 mJy (W2), 1 mJy (W3), and 6 mJy (W4) in unconfused regions allowed detection of luminous galaxies (LIRGs) with luminosities exceeding $10^{11} L_\odot out to redshifts z \approx 1, as well as tracing galaxy clusters and the stellar mass density across the local up to z \approx 0.5. This capability supported studies of galaxy evolution, accretion, and the cosmic background, with goals including the identification of millions of ultraluminous galaxies from when the was about 3 billion years old.

Spacecraft and Instrumentation

Spacecraft Design

The Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) spacecraft was designed as a three-axis stabilized platform, built by Corporation, with the science instrument integrated by the Space Dynamics Laboratory. It was launched aboard a Delta II 7320 vehicle from Vandenberg Air Force Base, achieving insertion into a Sun-synchronous at an altitude of 525 km with a 97.5° inclination. This orbit enabled continuous scanning while maintaining stable thermal conditions for observations. The cryogenic subsystem centered on a solid hydrogen-filled , containing 15.7 kg of cryogen, which passively cooled the to below 12 K and the silicon arsenide (Si:As) detectors to approximately 7.8 K. Thermal management incorporated on the outer surfaces and vapor-cooled shields to reject parasitic heat from the bus, ensuring a mission lifetime of about 10 months before cryogen depletion. The overall structure was an eight-sided aluminum bus housing the instrument, with the forming the core enclosure. Attitude determination and control relied on two star trackers for coarse pointing, a fiber-optic for rate sensing, and four reaction wheels for fine adjustments, augmented by magnetic torquer rods for momentum dumping; this system delivered an absolute pointing accuracy of 6 arcseconds (3-sigma) and stability better than 0.3 arcseconds . Power generation came from body-fixed solar arrays spanning 2 m by 1.6 m, producing over 500 W orbit average, supplemented by a 20 amp-hour for eclipse periods, with total spacecraft power consumption averaging 301 W. The telescope was mounted within the atop the bus, oriented for viewing during scans. The complete flight system measured 2.85 m in height, 2 m in width, and 1.73 m in depth, resembling a large cylindrical canister, with a total launch of 661 kg including the cryogen. and command communications used S-band omni-directional s at rates of 2–16 kbps, while science data downlinks reached 100 Mbps via a fixed Ku-band high-gain through 's System; onboard storage buffered up to 96 GB of compressed images between contacts.

Telescope and Detectors

The Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) features a cryogenically cooled 40 diameter infrared telescope designed for all-sky surveying in four mid- bands. The optical system employs an afocal off-axis with a primary mirror, tertiary mirror, and reimaging , achieving an effective focal ratio of f/3.375 and a square of 47.1 arcminutes to enable wide-area imaging with a plate scale of 2.75 arcseconds per in the shorter wavelength bands. This configuration provides diffraction-limited performance, with resolutions of approximately 6 arcseconds in the 3.4 μm and 4.6 μm bands, degrading to 12 arcseconds at 22 μm. The is housed within a that maintains the below 12 K to minimize thermal emission and during observations. The focal plane assembly consists of four 1024 × 1024 detector arrays, each tailored to one of the survey bands centered at 3.4 μm (), 4.6 μm (W2), 12 μm (W3), and 22 μm (W4). The and W2 bands use (HgCdTe) arrays cooled to approximately 32 K via a secondary cryogen tank, optimizing sensitivity for near- to mid-infrared detection while balancing power and lifetime constraints. In contrast, the W3 and W4 bands employ silicon arsenide (Si:As) blocked impurity band detectors cooled to 7.8 ± 0.5 K by the primary cryogen tank, essential for suppressing thermal noise in the longer wavelengths where blackbody emission from the instrument itself is significant. The W4 array is binned 2×2 to a 5.5 arcsecond per scale, enhancing signal-to-noise for fainter sources. These detectors achieve 5σ sensitivities of 0.08 mJy (), 0.11 mJy (W2), 1 mJy (W3), and 6 mJy (W4), with saturation limits for bright s at roughly 0.3 Jy (), 0.5 Jy (W2), 5 Jy (W3), and 10 Jy (W4). A two-position scan mirror enables efficient sky coverage by freezing the line of sight on the focal plane for 8.8 seconds per frame, followed by a 1.1-second flyback, resulting in an effective scanning rate of about 3.8 arcminutes per second synchronized with the spacecraft's orbit. This mechanism, combined with the orbit's stability, supports overlapping exposures (typically 8–12 per position) for robust photometry and . Operating in the allows WISE to pierce interstellar dust extinction, which absorbs and scatters visible , revealing obscured objects such as star-forming regions, active galactic nuclei, and ultraluminous infrared galaxies hidden from optical telescopes. In the Rayleigh-Jeans tail of the blackbody relevant to these wavelengths, the flux density approximates F_\nu \propto \nu^2 T, where T is , providing a linear measure of dust and enabling temperature mapping of cool sources. Instrument calibration relies on observations of standard stars like to establish absolute flux scales, with relative responses derived from the spectral response function S = \int R(\lambda) F_\lambda \, d\lambda, where S is the measured signal, R(\lambda) the detector response, and F_\lambda the source flux. from interplanetary dust, the dominant foreground in surveys, is subtracted using models fitted to the data, ensuring accurate photometry for extragalactic and Galactic sources. These techniques maintain photometric accuracy to within 2–5% across the sky.

Mission Timeline

Development and Launch

The Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) was proposed in 2001 and selected in June 2002 as NASA's sixth Medium-class Explorer (MIDEX) mission following a competitive process within the Explorer program. The project, with an initial cost estimate of $208 million covering development, launch, and operations, was managed by the (JPL) and led by Edward L. Wright from the (UCLA). Development faced funding challenges, including significant budget reductions of approximately 50% in 2005 and nearly 60% in 2006, which delayed the launch from mid-2008 to late 2009 and increased overall costs to about $320 million. These cuts stemmed from broader constraints in NASA's Science Mission Directorate, prompting a "stop-and-go" funding approach that heightened risks of cancellation. The spacecraft was assembled and tested by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corporation, with the science instrument—comprising a 40 cm and focal plane arrays—developed by the Space Dynamics Laboratory and delivered for integration in May 2009. Environmental testing, including vibration and thermal vacuum simulations, was completed that year to verify performance under space conditions. WISE launched successfully on December 14, 2009, at 9:09 a.m. PST from Space Launch Complex 2 at Vandenberg Air Force Base, , aboard a Delta II 7320-10C rocket provided by . The spacecraft achieved a sun-synchronous at 525 km altitude with a 97-degree inclination, enabling consistent lighting conditions for observations. During the subsequent in-orbit checkout , lasting about one month, operators confirmed the functionality of key systems, including the hydrogen-filled maintaining detector temperatures below 18 K and the mechanical for the shorter-wavelength bands.

Primary "Cold" Mission

The primary "cold" mission of the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer () commenced on January 14, 2010, following a one-month checkout period after launch, and lasted until September 29, 2010, spanning approximately seven months. During this phase, the spacecraft's cryogenically cooled detectors operated in all four bands (W1 at 3.4 μm, W2 at 4.6 μm, W3 at 12 μm, and W4 at 22 μm), enabling a full-sky survey that completed 1.5 passes over the entire . This effort produced a comprehensive capturing emissions from a wide array of astronomical sources, including stars, galaxies, and solar system objects, with sensitivities reaching 5σ limits of approximately 0.08, 0.11, 1, and 6 mJy for the respective bands. WISE achieved its survey through a at an altitude of about 525 km, providing 360° of coverage per day while steering to avoid the Sun-avoidance zone extending 47.5° ahead and 93° behind the spacecraft-Sun line. The scanning strategy employed a cryogenic scan mirror to freeze the field of view for 9.9-second exposures, resulting in overlapping frames that yielded 95% coverage of the in the W3 and W4 bands, with deeper sensitivities in regions of multiple passes. This approach ensured uniform all-sky mapping, prioritizing completeness over depth in the longer-wavelength bands limited by the finite cryogen supply. On September 29, 2010, the solid hydrogen cryogen was fully depleted, terminating operations in the W3 and W4 bands due to insufficient cooling for those detectors, while the shorter-wavelength W1 and W2 bands remained functional at slightly elevated temperatures. Early data validation during the mission confirmed the instrument's performance by detecting known infrared sources from prior surveys, such as objects in the Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS) catalog, achieving positional accuracies better than 1 arcsecond and photometric consistency with expectations. Initial discoveries of near-Earth objects (NEOs) also validated the survey's capability to identify moving sources, with preliminary processing pipelines enabling rapid alerts to ground-based observers. Operationally, the maintained three-axis stabilization using four reaction wheels to store , with excess buildup dumped periodically—every few days—via onboard magnetic torquer rods interacting with , ensuring attitude control below 1.3 arcseconds. This non-propulsive method minimized disturbances to the sensitive observations, though it required precise modeling of geomagnetic variations for optimal performance.

Initial NEOWISE Phase

Following the depletion of its cryogen in September 2010, the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer transitioned to the Initial NEOWISE Phase in October 2010, focusing on (NEO) detection using only the two shortest-wavelength bands, (3.4 μm) and W2 (4.6 μm), which were still operational for detecting from asteroids and comets. This phase, funded by NASA's NEO Observations Program within the Planetary Science Division, extended what was initially proposed as a brief post-cryogenic survey before , allowing continued operations until February 2011 to prioritize Solar System science over the broader astrophysical goals of the primary mission. The loss of the longer-wavelength W3 and W4 bands limited sensitivity to colder objects but enabled efficient NEO hunting in the remaining regime. During this four-month period, NEOWISE surveyed the entire sky once in the and W2 bands, achieving comprehensive coverage while operating in a mode similar to the primary but with adjustments to enhance NEO detection efficiency. The detected over 157,000 asteroids, including more than 500 NEOs (with 135 previously unknown) and approximately 120 comets (including 20 new discoveries), providing uniform photometry that helped characterize sizes, albedos, and properties less biased by visible-light surveys. To support moving object detection, the NEOWISE enhancement to the WISE incorporated the Wide-field Moving Object Processing System (WMOPS), which identified transient sources in single-exposure images and generated tracklets reported to the within days for follow-up; these data integrated with databases like JPL's Small-Body Database and the NEODyS system for orbital refinement and hazard assessment. Operational scanning was biased to avoid the crowded , reducing stellar confusion and prioritizing regions where NEOs are more likely to appear. The key output of this phase was the NEOWISE Post-Cryo Preliminary Data Release on July 31, 2012, which included single-exposure images and source extractions from the W1 and W2 observations, enabling detailed characterization of hundreds of s through modeling and contributing foundational to planetary defense efforts. This release, archived at the Science Archive, supported analyses that refined NEO population estimates and highlighted the mission's role in unbiased surveys of potentially hazardous objects.

Hibernation and Reactivation

Following the exhaustion of its coolant in September 2010, the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer entered mode on February 17, 2011, to conserve battery power and extend the spacecraft's potential lifespan. Placed in a safe-hold configuration, the telescope was oriented away from the Sun, with ground controllers at NASA's remotely monitoring and managing its orbit to counteract gradual decay from residual atmospheric drag in low-Earth orbit. This dormant phase lasted over two and a half years, during which no science observations were conducted, but the spacecraft's core systems remained viable for potential future use. In 2013, selected the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer for reactivation under the Near-Earth Object Observations Program, prioritizing its infrared capabilities for surveying asteroids and comets that could pose risks to , in alignment with planetary defense objectives. The decision leveraged the spacecraft's proven sensitivity to thermal emissions from dark, low-albedo objects, complementing visible-light surveys. Funded through NASA's Planetary Science Division and the , the recovery effort enabled a three-year extension focused on NEO characterization. The mission was redesignated to reflect its new emphasis. Reactivation commenced in September 2013, with S-band communications re-established on after powering up the and allowing the to passively cool to approximately 73 K using its radiators. Functionality of the two shorter-wavelength detectors (W1 at 3.4 μm and W2 at 4.6 μm) was successfully verified, as these bands do not require cryogen, while the longer-wavelength arrays remained inoperable. Scanning resumed on December 23, 2013, supported by updated flight software optimized for efficient detection, including improved moving object identification algorithms. Within six days, NEOWISE identified its first post-reactivation target, the potentially hazardous near-Earth 2013 YP139, demonstrating the mission's immediate operational readiness. The initial post-reactivation survey achieved one full-sky coverage by mid-2014, enabling the detection of thousands of system objects. In its first year alone, NEOWISE characterized nearly 8,000 asteroids, including 201 near-Earth objects, providing diameters and albedos that refined population models for potentially hazardous bodies. However, the mission encountered operational challenges from heightened atmospheric due to activity, resulting in an orbit decay of about 20 km over the early years; this necessitated frequent attitude control maneuvers to preserve the and minimize stray light interference during observations.

Extended NEOWISE Operations

Following its reactivation in , the entered an extended phase of operations focused on conducting repeated surveys of the sky to detect and characterize near-Earth objects (NEOs). This period, spanning from to July 2024, involved annual passes covering the entire sky, enabling multiple observations of the same regions to track moving solar system targets. Over these 10.6 years, NEOWISE completed more than 20 full-sky surveys, totaling 21.3 complete sky mappings. To enhance detection capabilities, mission teams developed improved pipelines optimized for identifying faint moving objects in the bands at 3.4 and 4.6 micrometers. These upgrades, implemented progressively during the extended operations, allowed for better to low-albedo NEOs that are challenging for ground-based optical telescopes to observe. Additionally, with initiatives, such as the Active Asteroids project, enabled volunteers to flag potential anomalies like cometary activity in NEOWISE images, supplementing automated detections and improving the identification of transient phenomena. Operationally, the spacecraft's low-Earth orbit experienced gradual decay due to atmospheric drag, with the altitude lowering from around 500 km at reactivation to approximately 360 km by mid-2024. By 2020, efforts increasingly emphasized the reprocessing and reactivation of archived data from earlier surveys to refine characterizations, maximizing the utility of the full dataset amid the orbital constraints. As of February 2024, these operations had yielded over 1.5 million measurements of 43,926 solar system objects, including 1,571 for which size and estimates were derived using thermal modeling. The extended NEOWISE phase provided critical groundwork for planetary defense, amassing a comprehensive infrared census of NEOs that informed trajectory predictions and physical property assessments. This legacy directly supported the transition to NASA's mission, launched in 2027 as a dedicated successor, by validating infrared survey techniques and highlighting gaps in dark or faint that future observatories aim to address.

Mission End

The NEOWISE mission completed its survey operations on July 31, 2024, after nearly 15 years of observations since its launch as in December 2009, with the final scans focusing on regions of interest for detection to maximize its planetary defense contributions in the mission's closing phase. On , 2024, survey activities were formally halted due to the spacecraft's declining altitude, and the mission team initiated the decommissioning sequence. Engineers at NASA's sent the final commands on August 8, 2024, shutting off the transmitter and placing the into a hibernation mode to conclude active operations safely. The spacecraft's orbit continued to decay naturally, leading to its uncontrolled re-entry into Earth's atmosphere on , 2024 UTC, where it burned up harmlessly from its orbit, which had decayed to approximately 400 km by the end of operations in July 2024. Following the end of flight operations, ground-based data processing persisted at the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center, culminating in the Final Data Release on November 14, 2024, which incorporated the mission's last year of observations. This release supports continued scientific analysis, with NEOWISE's legacy paving the way for NASA's mission, slated for launch no earlier than 2027 to enhance surveying. Over its lifetime, NEOWISE generated data from more than 26 million images, yielding nearly 200 billion detections that cataloged millions of unique astronomical sources across the sky and provided over 1.6 million measurements of nearly 44,600 solar system objects, facilitating ongoing research in and planetary defense.

Data Releases and Products

Early and All-WISE Releases

The WISE Preliminary Data Release, made public on April 14, 2011, provided initial access to data collected during the first 105 days of the cryogenic survey phase, from January 14 to April 29, 2010. This release covered approximately 57% of the sky, spanning about 23,600 square degrees in the ecliptic longitude ranges 27.8° < λ < 133.4° and 201.9° < λ < 309.6°. The Source Catalog included photometry in all four WISE bands (W1 at 3.4 μm, W2 at 4.6 μm, W3 at 12 μm, and W4 at 22 μm) for 257,310,278 sources, enabling early scientific analyses of infrared objects across diverse astronomical populations. Building on the primary mission data, the NEOWISE Preliminary Release was issued on March 14, 2012, incorporating detections of moving objects identified during the survey. This release added infrared measurements for over 157,000 asteroids, including more than 500 near-Earth objects and approximately 120 comets, by processing single-exposure frames to track solar system bodies. These data complemented the static source catalog from the WISE Preliminary Release, focusing on transient detections to support studies of asteroid albedos, diameters, and thermal properties. The All-WISE Data Release, publicly available starting November 13, 2013, represented the culmination of processing for the full cryogenic mission dataset, combining W1 and W2 observations from all survey phases with W3 and W4 data from the 4-band cryogenic phase. It delivered a full-sky Source Catalog containing positions, apparent motions, and profile-fit photometry for 747,634,026 sources, achieving 5σ point-source sensitivities of 0.054 mJy in W1, 0.071 mJy in W2, 0.73 mJy in W3, and 5.0 mJy in W4 in low-coverage regions away from the Galactic plane. Among these, millions of sources had reliable detections in the longer-wavelength W3 and W4 bands, limited by the mission's cryogenic lifetime. Source extraction in these releases relied on profile-fit photometry, which modeled source fluxes using point-spread functions fitted simultaneously across bands and exposures to account for spatial variations and source blending. Artifact rejection algorithms removed spurious detections from zodiacal foreground emission, latent images (lattice patterns), and other instrumental effects, ensuring high reliability through quality flags and multi-frame consistency checks. All data products, including catalogs, atlas images, and reject tables, are accessible through the NASA/IPAC Infrared Science Archive (IRSA) at IPAC.

NEOWISE Annual Releases

The NEOWISE annual releases commenced with the first data release on March 26, 2015, encompassing single-exposure images and extracted source detections from the spacecraft's initial scans spanning December 13, 2013, to December 13, 2014. This release covered nearly two full sky surveys, yielding approximately 137,000 confirmed detections of around 10,200 small Solar System bodies, including near-Earth objects (NEOs), based on linkages with Minor Planet Center tracklets. These data enabled initial characterizations of NEO thermal emissions and orbits, supporting planetary defense efforts by providing infrared observations of known and newly detected objects during the early reactivation phase. Subsequent annual releases from 2016 through 2023 incrementally expanded the dataset, with each iteration incorporating new observations from the ongoing survey and adding roughly 200,000 fresh detections of Solar System objects. By the 2023 release, the cumulative archive included over 1.4 million infrared measurements of asteroids and other bodies, facilitating time-domain analyses across multiple epochs. These releases emphasized NEO and Solar System targets, delivering enhanced coverage with up to 18 full-sky scans by that point, and supported the detection of variability in object populations through repeated observations. A key feature of the annual releases is the provision of multiepoch lightcurves, which capture brightness variations due to rotation, shape, and surface properties, alongside data for thermal modeling to infer physical characteristics. Diameters D of asteroids are estimated via near-Earth asteroid thermal models (NEATM), following the relation D \propto 1 / \sqrt{p \times F}, where p is the visible albedo and F is the observed infrared flux, calibrated against known objects to achieve typical uncertainties of 10-20%. By the 2023 release, these efforts had characterized over 44,000 unique Solar System objects, including 1,500 NEOs, with derived sizes and albedos for thousands. Processing enhancements across the releases improved data quality, including refined co-addition of exposures to reach fainter magnitude limits (e.g., deeper sensitivity in W1 and W2 bands) and incorporation of for sub-arcsecond positional accuracy in source extractions. These advancements reduced systematic errors in lightcurve fitting and thermal fits, enabling more reliable variability studies and size distributions for NEO populations.

Specialized Processing (unWISE and CatWISE)

The unWISE processing pipeline generates an atlas of co-added images derived from reactivated scans of the sky, specifically designed to facilitate the detection of time-domain variability in infrared sources. Developed between 2018 and 2020, this effort builds on the original imaging by stacking multiple exposures to achieve deeper sensitivity while preserving native angular resolution. The resulting images cover approximately 18,000 square degrees, enabling high-resolution mapping at 2 arcseconds for the W1 (3.4 μm) and W2 (4.6 μm) bands, which is particularly useful for identifying faint or variable objects below the single-exposure detection limits. Complementing the imaging products, the CatWISE project produces a dedicated motion detection catalog from multi-epoch WISE and NEOWISE data, focusing on proper motion measurements for faint infrared sources. Released in phases from 2019 to 2021, the preliminary version catalogs 900,849,014 sources across the full sky in the W1 and W2 bands, with proper motions derived for a substantial fraction, including the identification of 400,000 new high proper motion objects. Among these, approximately 60,000 are ultracool dwarfs, expanding the known population of low-mass stellar and substellar objects. Key to these products are advanced processing techniques, including forced photometry applied to stacked exposures to extract precise flux measurements even for blended or faint sources, and proper motion fitting using χ² minimization across multiple epochs spanning up to several years. These methods leverage the time-resolved nature of NEOWISE observations to model source trajectories, achieving astrometric accuracies of order 20–100 mas yr⁻¹ depending on brightness. The unWISE and CatWISE outputs support a range of applications, such as searches for transient events like variable stars or supernovae through difference imaging, and cross-matches with optical surveys like to refine positions and motions for billions of sources. The unWISE 2020 release incorporates a 10-year baseline from the full WISE/NEOWISE archive, enhancing sensitivity to long-term variability. An update, CatWISE2020, integrates data through 2020, expanding the catalog to nearly 1.9 billion sources while improving motion estimates for time-domain studies.

Final Data Release

The NEOWISE Final Data Release was announced on November 14, 2024, by the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center (IPAC) at Caltech, marking the comprehensive closure of the mission's data archive following the spacecraft's operational end. This release encompasses the full 15-year dataset from the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) and its NEOWISE extension, including all single-frame images acquired in the 3.4 μm (W1) and 4.6 μm (W2) bands, totaling over 26 million images. Among the key components are over 1.6 million confirmed infrared measurements of nearly 44,600 Solar System small bodies, providing a complete time-domain record for tracking their thermal emissions and positions across multiple epochs. New features in this release include high-fidelity co-add images generated from the final scanning epochs using the ICORE tool, which combines exposures to enhance sensitivity and resolution for targeted regions such as near-Earth object (NEO) fields. Additionally, enhanced search tools within the archive allow users to query and access the remaining undiscovered frames, facilitating detailed post-mission analysis of transient events. As a tribute to the mission's legacy, six never-before-seen mosaic images of iconic regions—like the California Nebula—were produced from archival data, highlighting infrared views of cosmic dust and star-forming areas. Across all products, the release catalogs more than 2 billion unique sources, with approximately 199 billion total detections accumulated over the survey's duration. The impact of this final package lies in its enablement of ongoing discoveries in planetary defense and infrared astrophysics, extending the mission's utility well beyond its operational lifetime by providing a unified, searchable repository for time-series studies. The entire sky was surveyed 21.3 times, with most areas observed over 220 times, offering unprecedented depth for variability analysis. Access is provided through the NASA/IPAC Infrared Science Archive (IRSA) portal, where users can download data products via web interface, API, or bulk transfer; a digital object identifier (DOI) is assigned for proper citation of the archive. No further updates are planned, as this release concludes the NEOWISE data processing pipeline.

Key Discoveries

Minor Planets and Near-Earth Objects

The NEOWISE mission detected over 158,000 minor planets during its primary phase, with additional detections during extended phases, including more than 34,000 previously undiscovered objects. Among these, NEOWISE identified 1,598 (NEOs) through infrared observations that provided size and albedo measurements independent of visible-light biases. Key findings from NEOWISE data revised the size distributions of NEOs, revealing that average diameters for potentially hazardous asteroids (PHAs)—those larger than about 140 meters that approach within 0.05 AU of Earth's orbit—are typically in the 100–300 meter range, smaller than prior optical estimates suggested due to the mission's thermal infrared sensitivity to dark, low-albedo bodies. The albedo distribution for NEOs exhibits a bimodal pattern, with peaks around 0.05 for dark carbonaceous types and 0.2 for brighter stony types, enabling better taxonomic classification and size estimation from absolute magnitudes. NEOWISE provided diameter and albedo measurements for approximately 700 PHAs, utilizing the near-Earth asteroid thermal model (NEATM) to fit infrared fluxes and refine estimates of their physical properties, which directly informs planetary defense by improving assessments of potential impact energies and trajectories. Overall, the mission cataloged infrared-derived diameters for 44,000 unique Solar System bodies, including minor planets and NEOs, mitigating optical survey biases toward high-albedo objects and offering a more complete view of their population.

Comets

The NEOWISE mission, an extension of the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, has observed 291 comets through its infrared detections, capturing data on active nuclei and extended dust tails primarily in the W3 (12 μm) and W4 (22 μm) bands. These observations span both short-period and long-period comets, providing insights into their thermal emissions and outgassing activity across multiple orbital passages. By detecting the infrared excess from dust and gases, NEOWISE enabled the characterization of cometary activity at heliocentric distances up to several astronomical units, where visible-light surveys are less effective. A prominent example is Comet C/2020 F3 (NEOWISE), discovered on March 27, 2020, during routine NEOWISE scans when it exhibited unexpected activity near 2 AU from the Sun. Peak brightness analyses from NEOWISE data, combined with dust coma modeling, revealed a nucleus diameter of approximately 5 km, with significant emissions from CO and CO₂ gases contributing to the comet's infrared signature. These observations highlighted the comet's heterogeneous composition, including volatile ices that drove its spectacular dust tail visible from Earth in July 2020. The mid-infrared sensitivity of NEOWISE proved crucial for tracing these volatiles during the comet's perihelion passage. NEOWISE provided size estimates for more than 100 Jupiter-family comets (JFCs), deriving effective diameters from thermal modeling of their infrared fluxes, with a mean nucleus size of about 1.3 km for the debiased sample. Dust production rates were quantified through measurements of infrared excess, revealing correlations between dust output and gas production, such as CO and CO₂ rates exceeding 10²⁵ molecules per second in active comets. Unexpectedly, thermal models applied to NEOWISE data identified candidates for dormant short-period comets among near-Earth objects, where low-activity or inactive bodies showed physical properties consistent with cometary origins, suggesting reactivation potential under solar heating. These infrared observations contributed to comet taxonomy by analyzing color indices in the W1-W4 bands, which distinguish carbon-rich compositions (showing stronger emission at longer wavelengths) from those richer in organics, as evidenced by variations in dust albedo and gas-to-dust ratios. Such distinctions helped classify comets into activity states and compositional groups, refining models of solar system formation and volatile delivery.

Cool Stars and Brown Dwarfs

The Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) mission revolutionized the study of cool stars and brown dwarfs by detecting these faint, low-temperature objects through their mid-infrared emission, revealing a population of substellar objects cooler than previously known. Among its key contributions, WISE identified over 200 new brown dwarfs, including more than a dozen Y-type dwarfs with effective temperatures below 500 K, expanding the known sample of objects at the low-mass end of the stellar sequence. These discoveries highlighted the diversity of late-type spectral classes, from L and T dwarfs to the newly defined Y class, which exhibit temperatures as low as those of some giant planets. The mission's all-sky coverage enabled the detection of isolated field objects, providing insights into the substellar initial mass function and atmospheric physics without contamination from host starlight. A standout discovery is WISE 0855−0714, the coldest confirmed brown dwarf, located approximately 2.3 parsecs from the Sun with an effective temperature estimated at 225–260 K based on infrared photometry and spectral modeling. This Y4 dwarf blurs the boundary between brown dwarfs and planets, with a mass likely between 3 and 10 Jupiter masses, and its spectrum shows signatures of water ice clouds and possibly ammonia absorption, challenging models of cool atmospheres. Follow-up observations with Spitzer and Hubble refined its parallax to 0.435 ± 0.020 arcseconds, confirming its proximity and enabling detailed studies of its methane-dominated atmosphere. Other notable Y dwarfs, such as WISE 1828+2650 (Y0) and WISE 0359−5401 (Y1), further illustrate the spectral sequence, with temperatures around 350–450 K and evidence for vertical mixing in their atmospheres derived from near-infrared spectra. The WISE AllWISE catalog compiles approximately 21,000 candidate M, L, T, and Y dwarfs selected primarily using color criteria like W1–W2 > 0.5 mag, which isolates late-type objects from background contaminants such as galaxies. This photometric selection, combined with measurements from multi-epoch data, facilitated spectroscopic follow-up that confirmed hundreds of new ultracool dwarfs, enhancing the completeness of nearby samples. For instance, ground-based of candidates revealed spectral types down to Y1, with red colors in WISE bands indicating thick clouds and low surface gravities consistent with young or low-mass objects. Parallax measurements from WISE, supplemented by Hubble and ground-based , have provided distances for about 70 ultracool s (L8 and later) within 20 pc, enabling volume-limited studies of their space densities and . These nearby objects, such as the T8 WISE 0410+1502, show tangential velocities typical of the old disk population, with ages estimated at several Gyr from kinematic and spectroscopic indicators. Atmospheric models incorporating WISE infrared spectra suggest the presence of clouds in Y dwarfs, which absorb at 1.5–2.2 μm and explain the observed spectral energy distributions when combined with cloud-free upper layers. Such modeling has refined effective temperatures and gravities, revealing evolutionary trends where cooler objects exhibit stronger absorption and potential disequilibrium chemistry. WISE data have revised estimates of the local population density to approximately 0.02 pc⁻³, about one per six main-sequence stars, based on the volume-complete sample within 8 pc and extrapolated to fainter limits. This lower-than-expected density implies a shallower substellar mass function, with fewer low-mass than predicted by some formation models. Binary fractions among these objects, derived from resolved pairs in WISE images (e.g., separations >1 arcsec), are around 10–15% for T and Y dwarfs, lower than for higher-mass stars, suggesting dynamical disruption or distinct formation pathways. In its extended NEOWISE phase, the CatWISE catalog from 2024 leverages multi-epoch motions to confirm over 500 ultracool companions to nearby stars, identifying wide binaries like the L/T pair WISE 2150−7520AB at projected separations of thousands of . These detections, often verified through projects like Backyard Worlds: Planet 9, have doubled the known sample of benchmark ultracool dwarfs with well-constrained ages from their primaries, aiding tests of atmospheric and evolutionary models.

Exoplanets and Circumstellar Disks

The has facilitated the direct of more than 20 exoplanets and planetary-mass companions by providing sensitive mid- photometry to identify cool, low-mass objects co-moving with young stars, enabling targeted high-contrast follow-up. These discoveries often reveal young gas giants with masses in the 5–10 Jupiter-mass range, exhibiting contrasts exceeding 10 magnitudes relative to their host stars due to their thermal emission in the WISE bands. A representative example is ROXs 12 B, a young substellar companion orbiting the ROXs 12 in the ~3–5 Myr-old ρ Ophiuchi star-forming region, with a mass of approximately 10 M_Jup and separation of ~140 , first characterized using WISE data for its cool before confirmation via near- direct . Such systems provide insights into the early of giant planets, as their brightness allows detection despite the glare of the host star. WISE has also identified over 200 debris disks through excesses in the W4 (22 μm), indicating warm dust emission from circumstellar material around main-sequence stars within 75 pc, with many representing new detections when combined with catalogs. These excesses arise from small grains heated by the star, and resolved imaging has revealed structured disks analogous to those around and , including warped or eccentric geometries suggestive of planetary perturbations. Analysis of infrared spectral energy distributions () from WISE data yields dust temperatures of 20–100 K for the cooler components, consistent with blackbody grains in outer disk regions. Dust grain sizes are inferred from SED fitting, where the optical follows τ ∝ λ^{-β} with β ≈ 1–2, indicating a mix of small (~1–10 μm) grains dominated by blackbody-like emission rather than steeper slopes from smaller silicates. In young systems, WISE detects protoplanetary disks in regions like and Auriga, where IR excesses highlight transitional disks with gaps potentially carved by forming planets. These gaps, spanning tens of AU, are evident in multiwavelength studies and suggest ongoing planet formation at 1–10 ages. Cross-matching WISE debris disk candidates with Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array () observations provides multiwavelength constraints, revealing radial dust distributions and gas-to-dust ratios that refine models of disk evolution and planet-disk interactions.

Nebulae and Young Stars

The Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) conducted detailed infrared surveys of key star-forming nebulae, including the Orion complex and Rho Ophiuchi cloud, revealing thousands of young stellar objects (YSOs) embedded within these dusty environments. In the Orion region, WISE data facilitated the identification of hundreds to thousands of YSOs across clusters such as the Orion Nebula Cluster, NGC 2024, and NGC 2068/2071, many of which were previously obscured by dust. Similarly, in the Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex, WISE imaging uncovered numerous embedded YSOs hidden in the dark nebula, spanning emission and reflection features associated with ongoing star formation. WISE's longer-wavelength capabilities, particularly in the W3 (12 μm) and W4 (22 μm) bands, pierced through the dense dust to detect embedded protostars at the peaks of the W3 and W4 star-forming regions in the Perseus Arm, highlighting deeply embedded sources driving molecular cloud collapse. Key findings from WISE data enabled refined classification of YSOs based on infrared colors, distinguishing evolutionary stages through excesses in the W1 (3.4 μm) to W4 bands. For instance, sources with significant mid-infrared excesses, such as W1–W2 > 0.8 and W3–W4 > 2, are indicative of Class 0/I protostars surrounded by thick envelopes, while flatter spectra (W3–W4 ≈ 0–2) suggest Class II objects with cleared disks. These color criteria, combined with magnitude cuts like W1 < 12 or W4 < 5, allowed robust separation of YSO populations from contaminants such as asymptotic giant branch stars. Analysis of YSO distributions in clusters mapped by WISE revealed initial mass functions peaking in the 0.1–1 M⊙ range, consistent with low-mass star dominance in these young populations and providing insights into the stellar initial mass function during early formation phases. WISE's all-sky coverage enabled comprehensive dust mapping along the Galactic plane, correcting for extinction to uncover over 1,000 bubble-like structures associated with H II regions. These bubbles, characterized by bright mid-infrared shells of heated dust surrounding ionized gas, trace feedback from massive young stars sculpting the interstellar medium. The catalog of Galactic H II regions derived from WISE morphology includes 887 confirmed and 2,307 candidate sources, many exhibiting bubble features that reveal the distribution of star-forming activity across the disk. Multi-epoch observations from WISE and its NEOWISE reactivation provided light curves for approximately 10,000 YSOs, revealing variability patterns linked to accretion processes. Many exhibited bursts with amplitude changes up to several magnitudes in the W1–W4 bands, attributed to episodic accretion from circumstellar disks onto the protostars, with rise times on timescales of months to years. These variability studies quantified the frequency of such events, estimating that protostellar outbursts occur roughly every 100–1,000 years in embedded populations. The enduring legacy of WISE includes an all-sky catalog of over 1 million YSO candidates, compiled by cross-matching WISE photometry with to achieve high purity (90%) and completeness (70%). This catalog supports distance calibrations for in obscured regions, enhancing models of Galactic star formation and cluster dynamics.

Extragalactic Sources

The Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) has significantly advanced the study of extragalactic sources by providing an all-sky infrared survey that penetrates dust obscuration, revealing millions of galaxies, active galactic nuclei (AGN), and other distant objects invisible or faint at optical wavelengths. Operating in four mid-infrared bands (3.4, 4.6, 12, and 22 μm), WISE detected over 560,000 sources classified as galaxies or quasars in its preliminary data release, enabling a comprehensive census of star formation and black hole activity across cosmic history. This infrared perspective has been crucial for identifying dust-enshrouded populations, such as luminous infrared galaxies (LIRGs) and ultra-luminous infrared galaxies (ULIRGs), which dominate the extragalactic infrared background and trace galaxy evolution from redshift z ~ 0 to z ~ 2. One of WISE's major contributions is the identification of AGN, including quasars and blazars, through dedicated catalogs derived from its all-sky coverage. The WISE AGN Catalog, compiled from over 30,000 square degrees of extragalactic sky, lists approximately 1.8 million AGN candidates, with a focus on type-2 quasars and obscured sources selected via mid- color criteria (e.g., W1 - W2 > 0.8). This catalog has facilitated multiwavelength studies, such as cross-matching with data to uncover a tight between colors and gamma-ray emissions in blazars, allowing the identification of over 3,000 potential new gamma-ray blazars and revealing their jet properties powered by supermassive black holes. Additionally, WISE enabled the discovery of "Hot Dust-Obscured " (Hot DOGs), a population of hyperluminous AGN at z > 2 with bolometric luminosities exceeding 10^13 solar luminosities, exemplified by WISE J181417.29+341224.9, the first spectroscopically confirmed hyper-luminous galaxy at z = 2.452. WISE has also excelled in detecting galaxy s, particularly massive and distant ones, through its sensitivity to the thermal emission from intracluster dust and galaxies. The Massive and Distant Survey (MaDCoWS) utilized WISE's 22 μm data to identify over 2,000 candidates at 0.7 < z < 1.5 across the full extragalactic , confirming massive systems like the z = 0.99 SPIRE2 with a mass of ~2 × 10^14 solar masses via spectroscopic follow-up. Another notable find is the "" MOO J2342.0+1301 at z ~ 2.08, 7.7 billion light-years away, containing over 30 confirmed member galaxies and providing insights into early . These discoveries have refined models of evolution and the cosmic web, highlighting WISE's role in complementing surveys like the Planck SZ observations. Beyond clusters and AGN, WISE contributed to the identification of extreme galaxy populations, such as extremely luminous galaxies (ELIRGs) and super spirals. It discovered WISE J224607.57-052635.0, the most luminous known, with an of 3 × 10^14 luminosities—equivalent to 300 trillion suns—driven by rapid accretion and merger activity at z = 6.2. This ELIRG, part of a new class selected via W1W2-dropout criteria, challenges models of feedback and growth in the early . Furthermore, WISE data helped reveal "super spiral" galaxies, colossal spirals up to 2.5 times the size of the with luminosities rivaling brightest cluster ellipticals, such as UGC 9034, which rotate at speeds up to 570 km/s and offer clues to the upper limits of disk stability and secular evolution. These findings underscore WISE's enduring impact on understanding the diversity and functions of extragalactic sources. The November 2024 final data release from NEOWISE, incorporating over 26 million images from 21 full-sky surveys, further supports ongoing analysis of these discoveries.

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