NASA announced that experts have commanded the WISE spacecraft to turn off its transmitter for the final time, signaling the official end of its mission. This decision was made because increased solar activity is heating the upper atmosphere, causing it to expand and create additional drag on the spacecraft, making it difficult for it to maintain its orbit.
NASA said in a statement that the telescope had stopped working after its orbit began to decline rapidly under the influence of increased solar activity. The last information collected was on July 31.
The Aeronautics agency added that the NEOWISE mission has collected a vast number of infrared images of the night sky, which will be studied in detail by astronomers over the coming decades. The agency also highlighted that this mission has laid the foundation for a new infrared space observatory dedicated to planetary defense.
It is worth noting that the WISE space telescope discovered during its period of operation in orbit (from 2009 to the current year
) more than 44 thousand small celestial bodies in the solar system, including three thousand near the Earth, including 200 previously unknown and 20 comets, and drew a detailed map of the universe in infrared rays.
Source: Qatar News Agency