NASA shuts down down asteroid-hunting NEOWISE telescope as the sun drags it to its doom
10 Aug
Science & Technology

NASA shuts down down asteroid-hunting NEOWISE telescope as the sun drags it to its doom

Posted by author-avatar
0
NASA Space Technology An artist's concept of NASA's asteroids-hunting NEOWISE satellite, which was decommissioned for good this week.(Image credit: ASA/JPL-Caltech)NASA's only space telescope dedicated to planetary defense has turned off its transmitter for the last time, ending its 15-year career detecting near-Earth asteroids and comets.The spacecraft — named NEOWISE (Near-Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer) — vastly outlived its original seven-month mission to scan the sky for infrared signals. It ultimately detected more than 200 previously unknown near-Earth objects, including 25 new cometsand provided a wealth of data on 44,000 other objects that zoom through our solar system, according to NASA.NEOWISE's mission, which officially ended on July 31, is finally coming to an end as the sun's era of peak activity, called solar maximumthreatens to drag the satellite into Earth's atmosphere for a final,...
Continue reading