NASA’s WISE eyes are open.
![NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer took its first image, capturing 3,000 stars in the constellation Carina. When its nine-month mission ends in October 2010, the telescope will have imaged the entire sky one and a half times. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/WISE Team](https://i0.wp.com/www.sciencenews.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/11733.jpg?resize=300%2C300&ssl=1)
After a successful launch on December 14, the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer is poised to begin the most thorough survey yet of the infrared universe. The telescope’s first image, a field of about 3,000 stars in the constellation Carina, was released January 6 at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society.
From a polar orbit 525 kilometers above Earth, WISE will snap a picture in heat-sensitive wavelengths every 11 seconds during its nine-month mission. At this rate, the telescope will scan the entire sky one and a half times, seeking asteroids, brown dwarfs and distant galaxies.