Scanning for Asteroids and Comets
The white dots show asteroids observed by WISE, most of these are in the Main Belt between Mars and Jupiter, and some, the Trojans, orbit in front of, or behind, Jupiter. The red dots represent newfound near-Earth objects, which are asteroids and comets with orbits that come relatively close to Earth's path around the sun. The green dots are previously known near-Earth objects observed by WISE. The yellow squares show all comets seen by WISE so far. As of May 24, 2010, WISE has seen more than 60,000 asteroids. It has observed more than 70 comets, 12 of which are new, and about 200 near-Earth objects, more than 50 of which are new. WISE is an all-sky survey, snapping pictures of the whole sky, including everything from asteroids to stars to powerful, distant galaxies.
Size: 3750px × 2722px
Photo credit: © Photo Researchers / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: -earth, -sky, asteroid, asteroids, astronomical, astronomy, body, celestial, comets, deep, dots, explorer, heavenly, infrared, minor, mission, object, objects, planet, planetoid, proto-planet, protoplanet, red, scanning, science, sky, small, solar, space, survey, system, white, wide-field, wise
