National Geographic Daily

The Tadpole and the Asteroid
Photo: NASA

Tiny yellow dots at the top of a crescent-shaped cloud mark the path of an asteroid as it zooms in front of the Tadpole Nebula, as seen in a new picture by NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE, telescope. The asteroid is in our solar system, while the star-forming nebula lies 12,000 light-years from Earth. The picture, released May 13, is a composite of 25 frames taken at four different wavelengths as WISE was conducting a scan of the infrared sky. The asteroid doesn’t make a continuous streak, because its distance from the orbiting telescope means that its apparent motion is relatively slow.