NEOWISE Mission's Stellar Legacy: Paving the Way for Planetary Defense

NASA's NEOWISE (Near-Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer) bid its final farewell as engineers at the Earth Orbiting Missions Operation Center commanded the spacecraft to turn off its transmitter for the last time. This poignant milestone marks the conclusion of an over ten-year voyage on a critical planetary defense mission – the search and study of near-Earth objects, including asteroids and comets with the potential to threaten our planet. The final command, signifying the official decommissioning, was issued from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California.

The NEOWISE mission's impact has been nothing short of profound. The infrared survey telescope didn't just meet its scientific objectives; it exceeded them, charting new territories in the study of near-Earth objects (NEOs) for not one, but two distinct missions. Beginning with the WISE mission launch in December 2009, the telescope had a primary goal to comprehensively scan the infrared sky. This aim was surpassed with unprecedented sensitivity by July 2010, leading to its extension under the renewed NEOWISE title, focused expressly on mapping main belt asteroids, until its 2011 hibernation.

NASA reignited the mission from its slumber in 2013, tasked with continuing the vital NEOWISE survey. This led to the sweeping achievement of creating comprehensive all-sky maps inclusive of 1.45 million infrared measurements, shining a light on more than 44,000 solar system objects. With over 3,000 NEO detections, the mission also introduced 215 previously undetected objects and discovered 25 new comets, including the spectacular comet C/2020 F3 NEOWISE that graced our night sky in the summer of 2020.

Despite the NEOWISE mission's end, largely due to orbital decay compounded by increased solar activity, its legacy heralds a brighter future for planetary defense. The forthcoming NEO Surveyor – an infrared space telescope designed with the singular purpose of detecting NEOs – owes much of its developmental framework to NEOWISE's groundbreaking findings. PIO Laurie Leshin and principal investigator Amy Mainzer commend NEOWISE for its pivotal role in advancing our understanding of near-Earth objects and bolstering national and global planetary defense initiatives.

Construction of the NEO Surveyor, also managed by JPL, presses on, with its eyes set on a launch no earlier than 2027. It promises to augment the international planetary defense community's ability to detect ordinarily elusive near-Earth objects – those that are dark, that don’t reflect much visible light, and objects heading towards Earth from the Sun's direction.

The NEOWISE mission hasn't just left behind a wealth of data; it has significantly contributed to the support of NASA's Planetary Defense Coordination Office's objectives. These include meeting the needs stipulated in the NASA Authorization Act of 2005 – to discover and characterize the majority of NEOs larger than 460 feet across coming within 30 million miles of Earth – NEOWISE's infrared eyes have set a high bar for future missions aimed at protecting our planet.