One of the reasons NEOWISE is so valuable is that it sees the sky in the thermal infrared. That means that instead of seeing the sunlight that asteroids reflect, NEOWISE sees the heat that they emit. This is a vital capability, since some asteroids are as dark as coal and can be difficult or impossible to spot with other telescopes.
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Carrie Nugent:
Astronomers are using every technique at their disposal to discover and study asteroids.Carrie Nugent:
Most astronomical work has to do with things that are very, very far away and don't affect our liveCarrie Nugent:
The basic method to find asteroids hasn't changed much in hundreds of years. So asteroids in a teleCarrie Nugent:
There's been a lot of really great intensive research into earthquakes, but we can't predict an earCarrie Nugent:
The best thing to do is to study these asteroids so we know the range of parameters we would have tCarrie Nugent:
I think the public perception about asteroids is that they're kind of metaphors for acts of God, thCarrie Nugent:
I think Dawn has done an amazing job showing that asteroids aren't just hunks of rock. They're worlCarrie Nugent:
People have discovered asteroids in the Main Belt that outgas like comets, and things on cometary oCarrie Nugent:
I think every time we send a spacecraft to an asteroid or comet, we learn more.Carrie Nugent:
When I tell people I'm a space scientist studying asteroids, they sometimes assume I'm a super-smar