James Bauer
Jet Propulsion Lab
 

"Highlights of WISE Solar System Science"
 

The Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) is imaging the entire sky at four wavelengths spanning the near through mid-IR at sensitivities hundreds of times greater than previous surveys. The WISE band-passes (3.4, 4.6, 12 and 22 microns) sample the flux from most inner-solar-system bodies near the peak of their thermal emission. While the primary WISE science objectives focus on ultra-luminous infrared galaxies and the nearest brown dwarfs, WISE is performing a vast array of solar-system observations.  WISE will observe and detect thousands of main belt asteroids and hundreds of near-Earth objects (NEOs), providing IR-derived diameters and albedos for many of these bodies, with increased sensitivity for the darkest members of these populations. The survey will also provide measurements of:
- asteroid thermal inertia, - dust grains in the coma of active comets,  - albedos & diameters of cometary nuclei,  - comet debris trails and zodiacal dust bands, - and the diameters & albedos of large outer solar system objects.
We will give a brief overview of these and other solar- system observations based on the first three months of survey data, focusing on the highlights of the mission to-date.