File:NASA's NEOWISE Captures Final Image Moments Before End of Mission (PIA26385).jpg

This starfield was imaged by NASA's Near-Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (NEOWISE) moments before the mission's science survey ended at midnight on July 31, 2024. The observation shows part of Fornax, a constellation that is visible in Southern Hemisphere skies.

The spacecraft's final image, which was processed by IPAC at Caltech, takes in a view about three times the width of Earth's full Moon. This infrared exposure is the space telescope's 26,886,704th, a number that includes observations captured during its WISE (Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer) mission. In addition to the stars and galaxies that appear as points of light, the spiral galaxy NGC 1339 can be seen as a fuzzy oval in the bottom right of the observation. NGC 1339 is about 64 million light-years from Earth.

On Aug. 8, a week after the image was captured, project engineers commanded the spacecraft to turn its transmitter off for the last time. This concluded more than 10 years of the planetary defense mission's search for asteroids and comets, including those that could pose a threat to Earth. By repeatedly observing the sky from low Earth orbit, NEOWISE created all-sky maps featuring 1.45 million infrared measurements of more than 44,000 solar system objects. Of the 3,000-plus near-Earth objects it detected, 215 were first spotted by NEOWISE. The mission also discovered 25 new comets, including the famed comet C/2020 F3 NEOWISE.

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages and operates the NEOWISE mission for the Planetary Defense Coordination Office within the agency's Science Mission Directorate. The Space Dynamics Laboratory in Logan, Utah, built the science instrument. BAE Systems of Boulder, Colorado, built the spacecraft. Science data processing, archiving, and distribution is done at IPAC at Caltech. Caltech manages JPL for NASA.

For more information about NEOWISE, visit https://www.nasa.gov/neowise