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.

The WISE team recently released an image of the Tadpole nebula, which is approximately 12,000 light-years from Earth. As WISE was capturing this mosaic of pictures, two asteroids crossed into the images. The first is 1719 Jens which appears near the middle of the image, while the second is 1992 UZ5 apearing in the upper left-hand side.

Twenty-five frames of the region, taken at all four of the wavelengths detected by WISE, were combined into this one image. The space telescope caught the 1719 Jens in 11 successive frames. Infrared light of 3.4 microns is color-coded blue: 4.6-micron light is cyan; 12-micron-light is green; and 22-micron light is red.

Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/WISE Team

via : Tadpole Nebula with Asteroid