Vot vyderzhka iz press-reliza NASA ot 25 yanvarya 2010 goda: "By observing infrared light, WISE will reveal the darkest members of the near-Earth object population -- those that don't reflect much visible light. The mission will contribute important information about asteroid and comet sizes. Visible-light estimates of an asteroid's size can be deceiving, because a small, light-colored space rock can look the same as a big, dark one. In infrared, however, a big dark rock will give off more of a thermal, or infrared glow, and reveal its true size. This size information will give researchers a better estimate of how often Earth can expect potentially devastating impacts. - V infrakrasnyh luchah WISE obnaruzhit samye temnye ob'ekty okolozemnoi populyacii - te, kotorye ploho otrazhayut vidimyi svet. Vazhnaya informaciya budet poluchena takzhe o razmerah asteroidov i komet. Ocenka razmerov asteroidov, osnovannaya na nablyudeniyah v vidimom svete, mozhet byt' oshibochnoi, poskol'ku nebol'shie, no svetlye ob'ekty vyglyadyat tak zhe, kak bol'shie, no temnye. V infrakrasnom zhe svete bol'shie temnye asteroidy, dayushie bol'she teplovogo infrakrasnogo izlucheniya, pokazyvayut svoi istinnye razmery. Informaciya o razmerah asteroidov vazhna dlya bolee tochnoi ocenki veroyatnosti potencial'no opasnyh soudarenii s Zemlei".

Dannye, poluchennye s WISE, predpolagaetsya sopostavlyat' i podtverzhdat'takzhe dannymi nablyudenii nazemnyh opticheskih teleskopov - eto takzhe mozhet dat' dopolnitel'nuyu informaciyu o svoistvah asteroidov - ih masse i al'bedo.