NASA's new infrared telescope, called WISE, has spotted its first near-Earth asteroid, a .6-mile (1 kilometer) rock recently designated 2010 AB78. The asteroid, located about 98 million miles (158 million kilometers) from Earth, was tracked for about 1.5 days before it moved beyond WISE's view. Followup observations by University of Hawaii's 2.2-meter visible light telescope confirmed the find.
While 2010 AB78 passes as close to the sun as Earth, it is not expected to pose any danger to the planet because of its tilted orbit.
"This is just the beginning," WISE lead scientist Ned Wright, with UCLA, said in a statement. "We've got a fire hose of data pouring down from space."
The Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer was launched in December to map the entire sky in infrared light. It is expected to find more than 100,000 new asteroids in the main Asteroid Belt, which lies between Mars and Jupiter. WISE is designed to illuminate so-called "dark asteroids" which do not reflect much visible light but radiate heat in infrared wavelengths.
(The red dot near the center of this image is the first near-Earth asteroid uncovered by WISE. Credit: NASA)
Tags: Asteroids
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