NASA’s NEOWISE spacecraft opened its "eyes" after more than two years of slumber to see the starry sky. This image of a patch of sky in the constellation Pisces is among the first taken by the spacecraft’s infrared cameras. Appearing as a string of red dots, an asteroid can be seen in a series of exposures captured by the spacecraft.
NASA’s NEOWISE spacecraft opened its “eyes” after more than two years of slumber to see the starry sky. This image of a patch of sky in the constellation Pisces is among the first taken by the spacecraft’s infrared cameras. Appearing as a string of red dots, an asteroid can be seen in a series of exposures captured by the spacecraft. The asteroid is called Holda, or 872, and was discovered in 1917. The faint red streak in the image is an Earth-orbiting satellite passing above the NEOWISE spacecraft.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech