On December 14, 2009, NASA launched the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) telescope. This space-born telescope has a 16 inch diameter and surveys light in the infrared wavelengths. The telescope’s focal planes and optics are cooled with a two-stage solid-hydrogen cryostat. This gives the mission an expected lifetime of 10 months. Over that time, it will take one image about every 11 seconds for about 1.5 million images in total.
Now NASA is releasing the first images from the telescope. The image to the right shows dust that is contained in the spiral arms of the Andromeda galaxy. Newborn stars within the Andromeda galaxy are heating the dust so that it glows. The Andromeda galaxy is 2.5 million light-years away and is the nearest galaxy to our own Milky Way.
Head on over to the site to see more images of Andromeda, as well as to see infrared images of a comet and a star cluster.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA
via : NASA WISE images
