WISE, NASA's Latest and Greatest New Toy

What exactly does that mean in scientific terms “near Earth?” Not much at this point in time and scientists are not trying to scare anyone with this latest discovery, but it does give one pause to ponder the implications. After all, asteroids have hit Earth before. Long, long, long ago, but it nonetheless has happened and will probably happen again. Hopefully not anytime soon because if it does and if the asteroid is sizeable it could mean the end of our days as we know them—poof, gone, in a big, hurling, rock spewing, fire breathing, puff. To clarify, an asteroid is an asteroid as long as it is floating around in space. As soon as it breaks through the Earth’s atmosphere, it is then considered a meteorite.

Everyone has heard of the dinosaurs and their sudden extinction. The event that took place 65 million years ago has been proven by science that it did indeed happen and the cause was a meteorite that slammed into the Earth. It landed in the Yucatan peninsula, a region of southeastern Mexico. On impact it dissolved into dust. It is believed to have been around six kilometers and has been compared to the size of the The Isle of Wight, England's largest island, about 3–5 miles in size. One may wonder how something only 3 to 5 miles could impact an entire planet but it has to be remembered that the asteroid was traveling at tens of thousands of miles per hour when it did collide with the Earth. The explosion caused mass devastation, vanquishing for hundreds of miles in all directions the earth’s surface. Everything in its path was simply turned to dust on impact, similar to what an atom bomb would do but personify it times 1000. Most devastating of all was the dust and debris that flew into the Earth’s atmosphere that blocked the sun for what could have been at least a year. The absence of the sun caused the extinction of all the Earth’s inhabitants at the time. Without sun nothing can proliferate, reducing photosynthesis. In addition, the meteorite, upon impact, was responsible for earthquakes and volcanoes, which was also contributory to the dinosaur extinction.

Today, even with the 95 asteroids that WISE picked up in its scan, none pose an immediate threat—nothing near as devastating as what the dinosaurs went through.
What is so special about WISE is the way it can see through particles that float through space, which is how it was able to locate the undiscovered asteroids floating in and around our galaxy that were never seen before now. A telescope, no matter how powerful, is unable to do this.
It is estimated that WISE, a $320 million project, will by year’s end detect “millions of newfound objects.” What is so special about that? This will enable scientists to better learn how planets, stars and galaxies form, which even in these modern times is still pretty much a mystery.