The University of Arizona, in partnership with NASA, received a two-year extension from the agency to continue its mission of identifying the asteroids and comets that could pose a hazard to Earth in the future.
The NEOWISE or Near-Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, is the “first dedicated space-based asteroid-hunting project in history,” the school said.
Since the mission’s restart on December 2013, researchers have identified an “unprecedented number” of near-Earth objects that come close to the planet’s orbit.
The university will continue through at least 2023 using the craft’s heat-sensitive detectors to measure the size of the objects.
“NEOWISE provides a unique capability in our global mission of planetary defense by allowing us to measure the infrared emission and rapidly estimate the size of hazardous asteroids,” said Michael Kelley, NEOWISE program scientist at NASA Headquarters.
So far, the mission has yielded knowledge of more than 30,000 previously unknown asteroids, which includes 338 near-Earth asteroids and 34 comets.
“Since its restart in 2013, the mission has made 1,130,000 confirmed infrared observations of approximately 39,100 objects throughout the solar system,” UA said.
The data gleaned from those observations has helped researchers in the scientific community to complete 1,600 peer-reviewed publications.
However, the space telescope “is not expected to last much longer due to the nature of its orbit and will eventually harmlessly re-enter earth’s atmosphere,” UA said.
It originally launched in late 2009 to survey the brightest galaxies.
In 2026, NEOWISE’s replacement will launch to “greatly expand on what we have learned, and continue to learn, from NEOWISE,” a NASA news release said.
