Materials for Asteroid WISE Workshops

2010 Jan 23. WISE First Near Earth Object (NEO) ...Near-Earth objects are asteroids and comets with orbits that come close to Earth's path around the sun. This particular asteroid, called 2010 AB78, is roughly one kilometer (0.6 miles) in diameter, and is currently about 158 million kilometers (98 million miles) away from Earth. Its elliptical-shaped orbit takes it out beyond Mars and back in about as close to the sun as Earth. Because the asteroid's orbit is tilted relative to the plane of our solar system, astronomers do not think it poses a hazard to our planet. [See images on website.]

2010 Jan 16. The first HOU-WISE follow-up telecon/online workshop/presentation by Patrick Miller on the topic of IASC (International Astronomical Search Collaboration) was recorded and synchronized with presentation slides that are available at https://cc.readytalk.com/play?id=fsx6ov (after you register to view it, by entering your name). The first 12 minutes are roll call and taking care of startup issues---actual presentation starts after 12 minutes.

2010 Jan 6. RELEASE 10-005: NASA's Wise Eye Spies First Glimpse of the Starry Sky; Infrared All-Sky Surveying Telescope Sends Back First Images from Space. Excerpt: WASHINGTON -- NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE, has captured its first look at the starry sky that it will soon begin surveying in infrared light.
Launched on Dec. 14, WISE will scan the entire sky for millions of hidden objects, including asteroids, "failed" stars and powerful galaxies. WISE data will serve as navigation charts for other missions such as NASA's Hubble and Spitzer Space Telescopes, pointing them to the most interesting targets WISE finds.
A new WISE infrared image was taken shortly after the space telescope's cover was removed, exposing the instrument's detectors to starlight for the first time. The picture shows 3,000 stars in the Carina constellation. It can be viewed online at: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/WISE/multimedia/wise20100106.html
The image covers a patch of sky about three times larger than the full moon.

2009 Dec 7. New NASA Craft, With Infrared Power, Will Map the Unseen Sky. NY Times article about WISE.

2009 Nov 17. RELEASE : 09-269: NASA's Wise Gets Ready to Survey the Whole Sky. WASHINGTON -- NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or Wise, is chilled out, sporting a sunshade and getting ready to roll. NASA's newest spacecraft is scheduled to roll to the pad on Friday, Nov. 20, its last stop before launching into space to survey the entire sky in infrared light.
Wise is scheduled to launch no earlier than 9:09 a.m. EST on Dec. 9 from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. It will circle Earth over the poles, scanning the entire sky one-and-a-half times in nine months. The mission will uncover hidden cosmic objects, including the coolest stars, dark asteroids and the most luminous galaxies....