NEOWISE Post-Cryo: Possible Asteroid and Comet Associations from WISE Satellite

The NEOWISE Post-Cryo survey scanned approximately 70% of the sky after the WISE telescope's cryogen was exhausted. This list from NASA contains predicted associations of known asteroids and comets with individual WISE single-exposure images, where objects may have multiple entries. Data was generated during the Post-Cryo phase when the W1 and W2 detectors operated near 73.5 K.

Use Cases

• Validate and refine solar system object orbits based on predicted positional associations.
• Analyze infrared brightness (W1 and W2 bands) of asteroids and comets from single-exposure data.
• Study the observational frequency of known objects from the approximately 70% sky coverage.
• Cross-reference detected WISE source positions with known celestial object catalogs.

Strengths

• Data originates from the NASA WISE/NEOWISE mission, an authoritative space telescope.
• Observations use the W1 and W2 detectors which maintained high quality imaging sensitivity post-cryogen.
• Covers approximately 70% of the sky during the Post-Cryo survey phase.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• The W3 and W4 detectors were fully saturated and not providing data during this phase.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

Collection Method

Generated from the WISE satellite's Post-Cryo survey phase single-exposure data, matched against known solar system object orbits.

Time Range

Covers the NEOWISE Post-Cryo survey phase timeframe.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 20:10:25.388234; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Sky coverage, approximately 70% of the celestial sphere.