Cool Stars 14 - Submitted Abstract # 400
This version created on 23 October 2006

The Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer


A. Mainzer, JPL
Ned Wright, UCLA
Peter Eisenhardt, JPL
Andrew Blain, Caltech
Martin Cohen, MIRA
Roc Cutri, IPAC
T. Nick Gautier, JPL
Thomas Jarrett, IPAC
J. Davy Kirkpatrick, IPAC
David Leisawitz, GSFC
Carol Lonsdale, IPAC
John Mather, GSFC
Ian McLean, UCLA
Robert McMillan, University of Arizona
Deborah Padgett, IPAC
Michael Ressler, JPL
Michael Skrutskie, University of Virginia
Adan Stanford, UC Davis
Russ Walker, MIRA

The Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE), a NASA MIDEX mission, will 
survey the entire sky in four bandpasses from 3.3 to 23 microns with a 
sensitivity 1000 times greater than the IRAS survey. The WISE survey will 
extend the Two Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS) into the thermal infrared, using 
1024x1024 HgCdTe and Si:As arrays centered at 3.3, 4.7, 12 and 23 microns. WISE 
bands 1 and 2 will be of particular use for finding ultracool brown dwarfs, 
possibly including the closest "star" to our Sun. WISE bands 1 and 2 were 
designed to maximize sensitivity to the methane absorption feature at 3.3 
microns found in ultracool brown dwarfs, as well as the adjacent continuum at 
4.7 microns. All-sky surveys such as WISE and 2MASS are the optimal tool for 
finding rare, superlative objects such as these. 

----------------------------------