WISE - Science Overview

<html><head> <title>WISE - Science Overview</title> <script language="javascript" type="text/javascript" src="wise.js"></script> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> <link href="wise.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css"> </head> <body bgcolor="#D2D2D2" leftmargin="0" topmargin="0" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" onLoad="MM_preloadImages('images/nav_news_on.gif','images/nav_education_on.gif','images/nav_gallery_on.gif','images/nav_astronomers_on.gif','images/nav_mission_on.gif')">  <a name="top"></a><br> <table width="760" border="0" align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" bgcolor="#FFFFFF" id="Table_01"> <tr align="left" valign="top"> <td colspan="6"><a href="index.html"><img src="images/inside_header1.jpg" alt="WISE: Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer" width="191" height="133" border="0"></a><a href="index.html"><img src="images/inside_header2.jpg" alt="WISE Home" width="192" height="133" border="0"></a><img src="images/inside_header3.jpg" alt="WISE: Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer" width="187" height="133"><img src="images/inside_header4.jpg" alt="WISE: Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer" width="190" height="133" border="0" usemap="#Map"></td> </tr> <tr> <td width="85" height="22" valign="top"><a href="mission.html" onMouseOut="MM_swapImgRestore()" onMouseOver="MM_swapImage('mission','','images/nav_mission_on.gif',1)"><img src="images/nav_mission_off.gif" alt="Mission" name="mission" width="84" height="22" border="0"></a></td> <td width="81" height="22" valign="top"><a href="science.html"><img src="images/nav_science_on.gif" width="80" height="22" border="0"></a></td> <td width="129" height="22" valign="top"><a href="news.html" onMouseOut="MM_swapImgRestore()" onMouseOver="MM_swapImage('news','','images/nav_news_on.gif',1)"><img src="images/nav_news_off.gif" alt="News and Events" name="news" width="127" height="22" border="0"></a></td> <td width="175" height="22" valign="top"><a href="education.html" 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height="22"></td> </tr> <tr align="left"> <td height="28" colspan="6" valign="top" ><img src="images/spacer.gif" alt="WISE" width="760" height="28"></td> </tr> <tr> <td height="244" colspan="6" valign="top" ><table width="760" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"> <tr> <td width="180" height="227" align="left" valign="top"><table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"> <tr> <td width="6" height="24"> </td> <td width="22"> </td> <td width="152" align="left" valign="top"><span class="scisubnav"><a href="index.html">WISE Home</a></span><br> <img src="images/sub_nav_divider.gif" alt="divider" width="152" height="11"></td> </tr> <tr> <td width="6" height="96"><img src="images/spacer.gif" alt="WISE" width="6" height="1"></td> <td width="22" align="left" valign="top"><img src="images/sub_nav_art.gif" alt="Asteroids" width="22" height="9"></td> <td align="left" valign="top"><span class="scion">Science Overview</span><br> <img src="images/sub_nav_divider.gif" alt="divider" width="152" height="11"><br> <span class="scisubnav"><a href="science_updates.html">Science Updates</a></span><br> <img src="images/sub_nav_divider.gif" alt="divider" width="152" height="11"><br> <span class="scisubnav"><a href="science_allsky.html">All-Sky Survey</a></span><br> <img src="images/sub_nav_divider.gif" alt="divider" width="152" height="11"><br> <span class="scisubnav"><a href="science_asteroids.html">Asteroids</a></span><br> <img src="images/sub_nav_divider.gif" alt="divider" width="152" height="11"><br> <span class="scisubnav"><a href="science_browndwarfs.html">Brown Dwarfs</a></span><br> <img src="images/sub_nav_divider.gif" alt="divider" width="152" height="11"><br> <span class="scisubnav"><a href="science_ultra.html">Ultra-Luminous Galaxies</a></span></td> </tr> </table></td> <td width="20" align="left" valign="top"><img src="images/spacer.gif" alt="WISE" width="20" height="1"></td> <td width="540" align="left" valign="top"><img src="images/sci_overview_header.gif" alt="Science" width="279" height="27"><br> <table width="245" border="0" align="right" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" bordercolor="#000000"> <tr> <td width="15"><img src="images/spacer.gif" width="15" alt="WISE"></td> <td width="230" height="165"><a href="iras_galaxy.html"><img src="images/iras_galaxy_center.jpg" alt="The central region of the Milky Way as seen in infrared light by the IRAS mission 20 years ago. " width="230" height="165" border="0"></a><table width="230" border="0" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" bordercolor="#000000"> <tr> <td width="230" bgcolor="d2d2d2" class="caption">The central region of the Milky Way as seen in infrared light by the IRAS mission 20 years ago. </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> <tr> <td height="12" colspan="2"><img src="images/spacer.gif" alt="WISE" width="1" height="12"></td> </tr> </table> <span class="maincontent">WISE will survey the entire sky in a portion of the electromagnetic spectrum called the mid-<span class="scilink"><A HREF="glossary/glossary_infrared.html" onClick="window.open('glossary/glossary_infrared.html','infrared','width=280,height=240,toolbar=no,location=no,status=no,menubar=no');return false">infrared</a></span> with far greater sensitivity than any previous mission or program ever has. The WISE survey will consist of over a million images, from which hundreds of millions of astronomical objects will be catalogued, providing a vast storehouse of knowledge about the Solar System, the Milky Way, and the Universe. </span> <p class="maincontent"> Within our Solar System, asteroids absorb most of the sunlight that hits them and heat up to glow in the mid-infrared. WISE will be able to measure the diameters of more than 100,000 asteroids. WISE will also see the infrared light absorbed and reemitted by dust, called Zodiacal Light, as well as the debris trails of comets. </p> <p class="maincontent">Some of the material making up the Sun's planetary debris disk is left over from the formation of the Solar System, and some is freshly generated by collisions between the asteroids and planets that exist today. Beyond the Solar System, WISE will provide a complete inventory of nearby young stars and their dusty disks, as well as of the debris disks associated with planetary systems around thousands of older nearby stars.</p> <table width="245" border="0" align="left" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"> <tr> <td width="230" height="165"><a href="milkyway.html"><img src="images/msx_2mass_galaxy_center.jpg" alt="The central region of the Milky Way Galaxy as WISE will see it with much greater sensitivity." width="230" height="165" border="0"></a><table width="230" border="0" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" bordercolor="#000000"> <tr> <td width="230" bgcolor="d2d2d2" class="caption">The central region of the Milky Way Galaxy as WISE will see it with much greater sensitivity.</td> </tr> </table> </td> <td width="200"><span class="maincontent"><img src="images/spacer.gif" width="15" alt="WISE"></span></td> </tr> <tr> <td height="12" colspan="2"><span class="maincontent"><img src="images/spacer.gif" width="12" alt="WISE"></span></td> </tr> </table> <p class="maincontent">In the neighborhood of the Sun, WISE will discover stars cooler and dimmer than the Sun, which are thought to be the most common types of stars by far. Brown Dwarfs are stars lacking the mass needed to fuse hydrogen into helium like visible stars do. They slowly radiate away their heat of formation, cooling from red hot to room temperature and below. WISE will find many such Brown Dwarf stars in the solar neighborhood, most of which have yet to be discovered. Some may even be closer to the Sun than any other star previously known.<br> Interstellar dust prevents us from seeing more than a few percent of the stars in the Milky Way in visible light. However, infrared light passes through the dust allowing WISE to map the global structure of our Galaxy. WISE will also detect infrared light emitted by this interstellar dust, producing very good maps of dust in the Galaxy. </p> <p class="maincontent">Beyond the Milky Way, WISE imagery will allow for the study of the structures and star formation histories of thousands of nearby galaxies.<br> <br> Farther away, WISE will find the most luminous galaxies in the Universe, called Ultra-Luminous Infrared Galaxies (ULIRGs), which result from the merger of galaxies triggering intense bursts of star formation, most of which is enshrouded by clouds of dust. WISE will also probe and characterize the population of <span class="scilink"><A HREF="glossary/glossary_agn.html" onClick="window.open('glossary/glossary_agn.html','agn','width=280,height=210,toolbar=no,location=no,status=no,menubar=no');return false">active galactic nuclei (AGN)</a></span> that are obscured heavily by dust and that have not yet been discovered by studies in the visible or ultraviolet parts of the electromagnetic spectrum. <br> <br> Clusters of galaxies found in the WISE survey will allow for further study of the mysterious dark energy that is responsible for the acceleration of the Universe.<br> </p> <table width="94" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"> <tr> <td width="94"><img src="images/back_to_top.gif" alt="Back to top" width="17" height="11"><span class="backnext"><a href="science.html#top">Back to top</a></span></td> </tr> </table> <br> </td> <td width="20" align="left" valign="top"><img src="images/spacer.gif" alt="WISE" width="20" height="1"></td> </tr> </table></td> </tr> <tr> <td height="44" colspan="6" valign="top"><table width="753" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"> <tr> <td height="32" colspan="3"><img src="images/spacer.gif" width="760" height="32" alt="WISE"></td> </tr> <tr> <td width="310" height="44"><img src="images/logos2.gif" alt="logos" width="310" height="46" border="0" usemap="#Map2"> </td> <td width="398" align="left" valign="middle"><table width="401" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"> <tr> <td height="46" align="left" valign="middle" class="footer"><font size="2"><a href="index.html">Home</a> | <a href="mission.html">Mission</a> <span class="footerpipe">|</span> <span class="footeron">Science</span> <span class="footerpipe">|</span> <a href="news.html">News & Events</a> <span class="footerpipe">|</span> <a href="education.html">Education & Outreach</a><span class="footerpipe"> |</span> <a href="gallery_images.html">Multimedia Gallery</a> <span class="footerpipe">|</span> <a href="astronomers.html">For Astronomers</a> <span class="footerpipe">|</span> <a href="mailto:outreach@ssl.berkeley.edu">Contact Us</a> </font></td> </tr> </table></td> <td width="45"><img src="images/spacer.gif" alt="spacer" width="45" height="44"></td> </tr> </table></td> </tr> </table> <table width="760" border="0" align="center" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="3"> <tr> <td><div align="center"><span class="copywrite"> Last updated 8/31/11 © UC Regents</span></div></td> </tr> </table> <map name="Map2"> <area shape="rect" coords="125,5,212,44" href="http://www.ucla.edu/" target="_blank" alt="UCLA"> <area shape="rect" coords="218,8,295,44" href="http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/" target="_blank" alt="JPL"> </map> <map name="Map"> <area shape="rect" coords="131,4,186,59" href="http://www.nasa.gov" target="_blank" alt="NASA"> </map> </body> </html>

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WISE - Science Overview