[5][6][7][8][9][10] WISE performed an all-sky astronomical survey with images in 3.4, 4.6, 12 and 22 μm wavelength range bands, over ten months using a 40 cm (16 in) diameter infrared telescope in Earth orbit.

[5] In 2013, NASA reactivated the WISE telescope to search for near-Earth objects (NEO), such as comets and asteroids, that could collide with Earth.

[17] However, the NEOWISE mission concluded its science survey on 31 July 2024 with the satellite expected to reenter Earth's atmosphere later the same year (2 November 2024).

The spacecraft was placed in a 525 km (326 mi), circular, polar, Sun-synchronous orbit for its ten-month mission, during which it has taken 1.5 million images, one every 11 seconds.

Among the objects WISE studied are asteroids, cool and dim stars such as brown dwarfs, and the most luminous infrared galaxies.

[22] At the time of planning, it was estimated that WISE would detect about 300,000 main-belt asteroids, of which approximately 100,000 will be new, and some 700 Near-Earth objects (NEO) including about 300 undiscovered.

Infrared measurements from the WISE astronomical survey have been particularly effective at unveiling previously undiscovered star clusters.

Its design specified as goals that the full sky atlas of stacked images it produced have 5-sigma sensitivity limits of 120, 160, 650, and 2600 microjanskies (μJy) at 3.3, 4.7, 12, and 23 μm (aka microns).

[29] On 8 November 2007, the House Committee on Science and Technology's Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics held a hearing to examine the status of NASA's Near-Earth Object (NEO) survey program.

[31] Discovery of an ultra-cool brown dwarf, WISEPC J045853.90+643451.9, about 10~30 light years away from Earth, was announced in late 2010 based on early data.

The launch vehicle successfully placed the WISE spacecraft into the planned polar orbit at an altitude of 525 km (326 mi) above the Earth.

[4] WISE avoided the problem that affected Wide Field Infrared Explorer (WIRE), which failed within hours of reaching orbit in March 1999.

[26] A month-long checkout after launch found all spacecraft systems functioning normally and both the low- and high-rate data links to the operations center working properly.

Such a mission would have allowed use of the 3.4 and 4.6 μm detectors after the last of cryo-coolant had been exhausted, with the goal of completing a second sky survey to detect additional objects and obtain parallax data on putative brown dwarf stars.

[5] The focus was to look for asteroids and comets close to Earth orbit, using the remaining post-cryogenic detection capability (two of four detectors on WISE work without cryogenic).

[53] During its primary and extended missions, the spacecraft delivered characterizations of 158,000 minor planets, including more than 35,000 newly discovered objects.

[5] On 21 August 2013, NASA announced it would recommission NEOWISE to continue its search for near-Earth objects (NEO) and potentially dangerous asteroids.

[57] The post-hibernation NEOWISE mission was anticipated to discover 150 previously unknown near-Earth objects and to learn more about the characteristics of 2,000 known asteroids.

[60] As of July 2024, WISE / NEOWISE statistics lists a total of 399 near-Earth objects (NEOs), including 2016 WF9 and C/2016 U1, discovered by the spacecraft:[34] Of the 365 near-Earth asteroids (NEAs), 66 of them are considered potentially hazardous asteroids (PHAs), a subset of the much larger family of NEOs, but particularly more likely to hit Earth and cause significant destruction.

"[63] On 13 December 2023, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), announced that the satellite would enter a low orbit causing it to be unusable by early 2025.

[17] On 8 August 2024, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory updated its estimate of orbital decay to sometime in late 2024 and announced that NEOWISE's science survey had ended on 31 July.

[64] On 14 April 2011, a preliminary release of WISE data was made public, covering 57% of the sky observed by the spacecraft.

[65] On 14 March 2012, a new atlas and catalog of the entire infrared sky as imaged by WISE was released to the astronomic community.

[66] The WISE data include diameter estimates of intermediate precision, better than from an assumed albedo but not nearly as precise as good direct measurements, can be obtained from the combination of reflected light and thermal infrared emission, using a thermal model of the asteroid to estimate both its diameter and its albedo.

In May 2016, technologist Nathan Myhrvold questioned the precision of the diameters and claimed systemic errors arising from the spacecraft's design.

CatWISE is led by Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), California Institute of Technology, with funding from NASA's Astrophysics Data Analysis Program.

[79] In addition to numerous comets and minor planets, WISE and NEOWISE discovered many brown dwarfs, some just a few light years from the solar system; the first Earth trojan; and the most luminous galaxies in the universe.

The sensitivity of WISE in the infrared enabled the discovery of disk around young stars and old white dwarf systems.

Some of these discovered transients are Tidal Disruption Events (TDE) in galaxies[92] and infrared detection of supernovae similar to SN 2010jl.

[93] Examples of the mission's numbered minor planet discoveries include: On 27 March 2020, the comet C/2020 F3 (NEOWISE) was discovered by the WISE spacecraft.