NASA’s Neowise satellite, which was deployed as a “planetary defense mission” to track asteroids and comets that could pose a threat to Earth, will crash into our atmosphere.
Neowise (Near-Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer) spent a decade hunting dangerous celestial bodies, but when it drifted too deep into Earth’s orbit, NASA engineers had to send the satellite one final command.
However, NASA officials said Neowise would soon sink too far into Earth’s orbit to provide the necessary scientific data because of an “increase in solar activity,” meaning Earth’s upper atmosphere is heating up and expanding.
This is how NASA sent the last command to NEOWISE
Space agency officials gathered at their Jet Propulsion Lab in California and sent the final command to NEOWISE (Near-Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer) to turn off its transmitter after it had been operating for nearly 15 years while technicians worked to retrieve the remaining data.
“The NEOWISE mission has been an extraordinary success story, helping us better understand our place in the universe by tracking asteroids and comets that could pose a threat to us on Earth,” Nicola Fox, deputy director of the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters, said in a statement.
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“While we are sad to see this bold mission come to an end, we look forward to the future scientific discoveries it will enable and lay the foundation for the next generation of planetary defense telescopes,” she said.
In December 2009, NEOWISE was launched under a different name and with a different mission.
The satellite was previously called WISE (Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer) and its task was to scan the entire infrared sky as part of a seven-month primary mission.
The observation was carried out “with far greater sensitivity than previous investigations,” NASA said in a statement.
(With contributions from agencies)
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