By Ron Cowen
MIAMI — A new orbiting observatory has captured the Heart and Soul of its mission.
Less than six months after being launched, NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE, has recorded two giant bubbles of gas and stars, the Heart nebula and the Soul nebula, both about 6,000 light-years from Earth.
The craft’s infrared sensitivity enabled it to peer more deeply into the cold, dusty regions of each nebula, both of which are sites of intense star formation, than a visible-light telescope would. Astronomers released an image of the two star-forming regions May 24 at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society.