WISE, a mission that will find ALL the neighbours Options

[alan]

I recall reading that the aim is changed to avoid the moon when is at first and last quarter. I suspect they get picked up the next time the moon reaches those phases.

[Greg Hullender]

They updated the text on the page that shows progress. (Now at 99.5%)

http://wise.ssl.berkeley.edu/sky_coverage.html

They say the red stripes result from the moon-avoidance strategy. No mention of the off blue strip, but, somehow, they're covering it now, and they say they'll be at 100% tomorrow.

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2010-238

Some highlights:

more than one million images so far
more than 100,000 asteroids, both known and previously unseen
more than 90 new near-Earth objects
more than a dozen new comets
The first release of WISE data, covering about 80 percent of the sky, will be delivered to the astronomical community in May of next year.

Also today, they released a new pic of the Pleiades:

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/WISE/new...se20100716.html

Cool stuff!

--Greg

[Greg Hullender]

The WISE coverage map has become much more colorful:

http://wise.ssl.berkeley.edu/sky_coverage.html

I wonder what the "16x" factor means? Does it actually mean that the point was imaged on 16 different orbits?

--Greg

[djellison]

I would have thought so - notice the density increasing to the poles. It would have imaged, roughly speaking, the same spot over the north pole every single orbit just about

[Gsnorgathon]

It's my understanding that folks looking for planets, comets, KBOs, &c. don't observe high above the ecliptic so much, because of the lesser likelihood of finding anything there. I'm curious to see if WISE manages to snag some interesting findings, especially since it's got so much polar coverage.

[ugordan]

There should be a higher probability it will be a comet if they find anything there.

[elakdawalla]

It's also a higher probability it's a NEO. With modest inclinations, if they're close enough, they'll still appear at high angles to the ecliptic.

[Bill]

I find these informations on the comet section of British Astronomical Association, http://www.ast.cam.ac.uk/~jds/ :
Jul 23 WISE discovers asteroid in retrograde orbit
Jul 30 WISE discovers short period retrograde asteroid

Any more informations about these discoveries ?

[nprev]

A short-period retrograde asteroid?

Wow. That might be the first such ever discovered, esp. if the orbit's anywhere close to the ecliptic plane. Hopefully more info will be forthcoming.

[Holder of the Tw...]

The July 23rd discovery was asteroid 2010 OR1, which has a period about 30 years and an inclination around 143 degrees.

The July 30th discovery most likely was actually a reobservation of asteroid 2010 LG61, which was discovered by WISE back in June, but whose orbit at the time was nearly impossible to fit properly. They originally thought it was very small, in a prograde Aten type orbit. WISE got an additional look on the 26th which finally got the orbit right. It is a much larger rock than they thought with a period around 19 years (this is short period?) and inclined 123.7 degrees.

I can find no other candidate for the July 30th asteroid.

These are impressive, but not record holders. Other examples would be the recently discovered 2010 EB46, found by the Catalina Sky Survey back in March, which has a period 16.7 years and an inclination of 156 degrees, both of which best 2010 LG61. Then you have 2008 SO218, which beats out 2010 OR1 both on period (23 years) and on inclination, which is 170.4 degrees and nearly in the ecliptic going backwards.

[Gsnorgathon]

Hey, thanks for blowing my mind, guys! I had no idea there were short-period retrograde objects. Is the basic idea that these objects started out as long-period retrograde comets and got herded into shorter orbits by Jupiter, or is there a more interesting story behind any of them?

(I note with great amusement that the first-discovered was named Dioretsa! [Retrograde? Dioretsa... think about it.])

[nprev]

I am likewise impressed & enlightened, Holder! (Yeah, diggin' the name, Gsnorg... )

[brellis]

Dioretsa am I? I'm a asteroid!

[nprev]

This thing's worth a mission just for the hours of nomenclature fun to be had mapping it.

[Holder of the Tw...]

WISE has depleted the coolant in one of its two tanks, and has begun warming up. One detector no longer functioning. All others working for now, and expected to work for some time.

Cooling status report