Video Fridays: NEOWISE Retires

This one popped up in my feeds a couple weeks ago, when NASA announced that they would be putting this satellite to sleep in anticipation of it falling and burning up in Earth’s atmosphere some time toward the end of the year. Like the rovers on Mars, this probe surprised scientists by far exceeding it’s planned 6-month mission, lasting from 2009 until it was put into hibernation in 2011 and then it was given a second mission beginning in 2013 and lasting until this year, 2024. The original WISE mission was to detect and investigate the brightest galaxies and coldest stars using its infrared sensors. Along the way scientists discovered that the probe was also good at detecting asteroids and comets in our own solar system, thus it was rechristened NEOWISE and it’s new mission was to help build the database of near-earth objects (NEO), which it’s performed over the last 11-years. Unfortunately it has now run out of propellent needed to adjust its orbit and to do the needed nudge to keep it in orbit. I like the comment that in the end NEOWISE is going to become the thing that it has been investigating over the past 11-years, a near-earth-object that it going to come in contact with our atmosphere (and burn up). It turns out that even space probes have lifespans. Thanks for your service, NEOWISE.

Sources:

NASA Retires Orbiting Telescope That Charted Asteroids for Over a Decade by Elizabeth Gamillo/Smithsonian Magazine (2024-08-12), https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/nasa-retires-orbiting-telescope-that-charted-asteroids-for-over-a-decade-180984872/
NEOWISE: Legacy of NASA’s Asteroid-Hunting Telescope posted by NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (2024-08-01), https://youtu.be/_ay0iJYabcc?si=Bmdk9yMwHrtJwamQ
NEOWISE: Revealing Changes in the Universe posted by NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (2022-10-18), https://youtu.be/qOVTqPvV6wY?si=Ay8aOH1S17YTv6nk

Tags: JPL, nasa, near earth objects, NEOWISE, unmanned space probe