All articles tagged with #neowise
APOD's 2026-09-13 image features Comet NEOWISE (C/2020 F3) rising over the Adriatic Sea in Italy, captured in a 30-minute time-lapse from 240+ exposures; it shows its ion and dust tails against noctilucent clouds and stars, with a nucleus about 5 km across.
APOD highlights a 240-frame timelapse of Comet NEOWISE rising over the Adriatic Sea from Italy, capturing its bright nucleus and tails against noctilucent clouds and distant stars; the comet remained unusually bright for about a month, and the page notes NASA’s move of APOD to science.nasa.gov/apod with credits to Paolo Girotti.
An 18-year-old Pasadena high school senior, Matteo Paz, built a neural-network–assisted pipeline to comb through nearly 200 billion raw infrared detections from NASA's NEOWISE survey, sorting by variability to flag about 1.5 million potential new objects. Described in The Astronomical Journal and aided by Caltech/IPAC mentorship, the method turns a data firehose into manageable leads rather than confirmed discoveries. The catalog will undergo follow-up observations to confirm which candidates are real, with Paz’s win in the 2025 Regeneron Science Talent Search marking a starting line for applying the approach to future time-domain surveys.
Astronomers spotted a record-breaking quasar dating to 12.9 billion years ago that flickered about 20% over NEOWISE’s 14-year data, implying a very flattened accretion disk and suggesting supermassive black holes could mature and grow rapidly very early in cosmic history. The quasar’s luminosity is about 12 trillion suns, and the finding—reported in Nature Astronomy—bolsters theories of early black-hole formation, with researchers aiming to find even older quasars using JWST.
Seventeen-year-old Matteo Paz, mentored by Caltech researchers, built VARnet to scan NASA’s NEOWISE infrared sky data and identify 1.5 million variable-object candidates. The pipeline processes each source in under 53 microseconds and could yield a full infrared variability catalog once follow-up work confirms the objects, with implications for time-domain astronomy; Paz later won a top national science prize for the achievement.
A Pasadena high-school student, Matteo Paz, and Caltech researchers used an AI model called VARnet to scan NASA’s NEOWISE infrared sky data, processing about 200 billion detections to flag roughly 1.5 million variable-object candidates. The full catalog, to be published in 2025, could reveal new quasars, variable stars, and transient events, though many candidates will require follow-up observations to confirm their nature. The approach combines wavelet decomposition, irregular time-series analysis, and a convolutional neural network for classification, with potential applications beyond astronomy.
Teen Matteo Paz used an AI-driven approach (VARnet) to analyze NASA's NEOWISE data and automatically identify about 1.5 million previously unidentified celestial objects, processing roughly 200 billion entries; he published a paper in The Astronomical Journal and won the Regeneron Science Talent Search, with Caltech planning to apply the method to binary-star studies and noting potential broader uses beyond astronomy.
Using NEOWISE infrared data, astronomers tracked a massive Andromeda star, M31-2014-DS1, that brightened and then vanished over a few years, with optical/near-infrared follow-up supporting a direct collapse into a black hole without a supernova, a rare event that helps calibrate how massive stars end their lives.
Astronomers using archival NEOWISE infrared data have captured the clearest evidence yet that a massive star in the Andromeda Galaxy directly collapsed into a black hole, after brightening in infrared for about three years and leaving a dust shell; the event (M31-2014-DS1) from 2014 suggests some massive stars die without a supernova, refining ideas about stellar deaths.
NASA's NEOWISE space telescope, originally launched as WISE in 2009, concluded its mission in July 2024 and reentered Earth's atmosphere in November, burning up. Before its end, NEOWISE conducted 21 sky surveys, capturing nearly 27 million images and studying over 3,000 near-Earth objects. The final data release includes never-before-seen images, offering insights into cosmic changes over time. The mission's legacy continues to impact time-domain science, providing valuable data for researchers and stunning images for the public.
NASA's NEOWISE mission, originally the WISE spacecraft launched in 2009, has concluded after nearly 15 years of observing the night sky. The mission, which focused on tracking asteroids and comets, released its final data on November 14. To celebrate, six new images from the telescope's archives were unveiled, including stunning infrared views of the California Nebula and the Gecko Nebula. These images highlight the mission's contributions to time-domain science and the study of celestial objects.
NASA's NEOWISE telescope, originally launched as WISE in 2009, has concluded its mission, leaving behind a rich legacy of data on near-Earth objects, comets, and celestial phenomena. Over 15 years, NEOWISE provided repeated observations of the same sky regions, enabling significant discoveries such as the characterization of over 3,000 near-Earth objects. The final data release includes stunning infrared images of regions like the California Nebula, highlighting the telescope's contributions to understanding the universe. The data will continue to aid future astronomical research.
NASA's NEOWISE mission, which concluded in 2024, has released its final data set, including over 26 million images and nearly 200 billion detected sources. Originally launched as WISE in 2009, the mission was reactivated in 2013 to focus on near-Earth objects. NEOWISE's extensive infrared data has been invaluable for studying asteroids, comets, and other celestial phenomena. The final release includes six new images, highlighting regions like the California Nebula, and underscores the mission's lasting impact on astronomy.
NASA's Near-Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (NEOWISE) telescope has concluded its mission by burning up in Earth's atmosphere after over a decade of monitoring asteroids and comets. Originally launched as WISE in 2009, the telescope was repurposed in 2013 to focus on planetary defense, identifying 215 near-Earth objects. NEOWISE's end was due to increased solar activity affecting its orbit. Despite its demise, the mission laid the groundwork for future planetary defense efforts, with its successor, NEO Surveyor, planned for launch after 2027.
NASA's NEOWISE spacecraft, originally launched as WISE in 2009, has ended its mission by burning up in Earth's atmosphere. The spacecraft, which surveyed 3,000 near-Earth objects, was repurposed in 2013 to focus on asteroid detection after its initial mission of observing the universe in infrared wavelengths. NEOWISE's demise was due to the solar maximum, which expanded Earth's atmosphere, causing the spacecraft to descend without propulsion. NASA plans to launch a successor, the NEO Surveyor, in 2027 to continue asteroid detection.