The Little Telescope that Could

The Wide Field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) is a small (0.4 meter diameter) infrared space telescope.  The cost was relatively modest ($320 million) as far as space missions go.  It was put into orbit to do one thing only, slowly and steadily map the entire sky in the mid-infrared (3-30 microns).

The mission was a spectacular success.  The final images and catalogs over the entire sky were released today.  Below is an annotated version of the all sky map.  But if you want to play with a really high resolution image, follow this link.

WISE has been great for studying low-mass stars and dusty regions of the Milky Way, but it's also really good at finding asteroids. Check out this video to see how many it has found.