Related Information Program Manager: John Elwell Email: john.elwell@sdl.usu.edu SDL's Infrared Capabilities WISE Website Jet Propulsion Laboratory Media Coverage SDL to build telescope partnered with NASA The Utah Statesman, 6 Dec 2004 Sky's the limit for USU project — an orbiting NASA telescope The Deseret Morning News, 24 Nov 2004 Space lab to build telescope to map universe The Salt Lake Tribune, 24 Nov 2004 USU Developing Space Telescopes KSL News, 23 Nov 2004 NASA awards SDL $40 million contract to build Next Generation IR Telescope Space Dynamics Laboratory, 23 Nov 2004 Utah State, NASA join to survey the universe The Standard-Examiner, 24 Nov 2004

WISE
Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer

WISE is the sole currently-funded NASA Mid-class Explorer (MIDEX) program. Launching in November 2009, WISE will survey the entire sky in four mid-infrared bands spanning from 2.8 to 25 microns.

Over the course of six months, WISE will collect millions of overlapping images from which hundreds of millions of astronomical objects will be catalogued. With over a thousand times the infrared sensitivity of any previous mission, WISE will measure the diameters of over 100,000 asteroids in our solar system, and provide a complete inventory of nearby young stars as well as of the debris disks associated with planetary systems around older nearby stars. Additionally, WISE will discover many cool, dim brown dwarf stars close to our sun, and detect far distant ultra-luminous infrared galaxies where star formation is taking place at a greatly accelerated rate. These images will provide the essential star catalog for the James Webb Space Telescope.

The WISE payload will stand over 6 feet tall and weigh nearly 800 lbs. Based on designs from SPIRIT III and WIRE, WISE features a 40-cm, all-reflective imaging telescope housed in a two-stage, solid-hydrogen cryostat. Images from the telescope will be captured on four 10242 focal plane arrays—two arsenic-doped silicon FPAs and two mercury-cadmium-telluride FPAs.