Image Credit: NASA/VAFB

If everything goes according to plan, NASA will launch the Wide-field Infared Survey Explorer (WISE) spacecraft on Friday, December 11, 2009 from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. (Please note: At the time this blog post was written weather was threatening to postpone the launch.) WISE was designed to survey the entire sky and to produce infrared images of millions of objects ranging from asteroids to brown dwarf stars to ultra-luminous galaxies.

For those of you interested in learning more about infrared astronomy I have compiled a list of resources that I hope are useful and fun:

• Active Astronomy – Classroom Activities for Learning About Infrared Light This link points to a Teacher’s Guide from SOFIA – Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy. It looks like fun for everyone.
• Infrared Astronomy Tutorial NASA really emphasizes Education and Public Outreach (EPO) activities. This site is, "the main gateway of the 'Cool Cosmos' EPO group at the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center and the SIRTF Science Center". I really like this site!! It’s great for students or anyone who wants to learn more about Infrared Astronomy. Highly recommended!
• The current Spitzer Space Telescope site.
• The new beta web site for the Spitzer Space Telescope.