Asteroid Tracks Among the Stars

NASA's WISE space telescope (the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer) captured more than 100 asteroids in this view in March 2010, during its primary all-sky survey, before WISE was put into hibernation in 2011. In August 2014, the mission was revived to hunt more asteroids and other Near-Earth Objects, and renamed NEOWISE. Not all of the asteroids are easy to see, but some stand out as a series of dots. Each dot in a track shows one asteroid, captured at different times as it marched across the sky. The asteroid at center left is called (2415) Ganesa. Clusters of stars can also be seen; for example, NGC 2158 glitters like a jeweled brooch at center right. There are about 2,500 stars in this view, which is about 30 light-years across. Clouds of gas and dust surround the region, visible only in the infrared light that NEOWISE observes.