NASA's old and now retired NEOWISE, an infrared space telescope that hunts for asteroids and comets, has collected an impressive amount of observations during its ten years in service.
Since reactivating its mission on December 13, 2013, the space telescope has identified a unique comet, tracked more than 3,000 near-Earth objects, strengthened international planetary defense initiatives and assisted another NASA mission in an encounter with a distant asteroid , among other achievements.
However, solar activity causes NEOWISE – short for Near-Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer – to fall out of orbit. The spacecraft is expected to fall so low into Earth's atmosphere in early 2025 that it will become useless. Eventually it will re-enter the atmosphere and burn up completely.
Here are 5 NASA images of NEOWISE's key discoveries:
