Artistic concept of the telescope.
The Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) is a space telescope launched on December 14, 2009 intended to study infrared radiation with a telescope 40 cm in diameter. Images of the telescope are at least 1000 times more accurate than previous infrared telescopes, such as IRAS.
The mission will complete 99% of the sky, taking a photo every 11 seconds, each photo will cover an area 3 times larger than the full moon. After 6 months WISE will have taken approximately 1 500 000 images covering the entire sky.
The construction of the telescope was carried out between the Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. (the ship and support operations), SSG Precision Optronics (telescope and all optics), DRS and Rockwell International (focal level), Lockheed Martin (responsible for refrigeration) and Space Dynamics Laboratory board, electronics and tests). All this was handled by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
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