NEOWISE, the NASA mission that cataloged objects around Earth for over a decade, has come to an end

WISE, NEOWISE's predecessor mission, imaged the entire sky in the mid-infrared range. NASA/JPL/Caltech/UCLA

The NASA project NEOWISE, which has given astronomers a detailed view of near-Earth objects – some of which could strike the Earth – ended its mission and burned on reentering the atmosphere after over a decade.

On a clear night, the sky is full of bright objects – from stars, large planets and galaxies to tiny asteroids flying near Earth. These asteroids are commonly known as near-Earth objects, and they come in a wide variety of sizes. Some are tens of kilometers across or larger, while others are only tens of meters or smaller.