NASA’s WISE sky probe was launched successfully yesterday from a base in California.

The US space agency launched its Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) yesterday (14 December) from its Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

The WISE probe was launched on a Delta II rocket by NASA on a mission to discover undetected cosmic objects in the universe.

The Delta II rocket deposited the sky survey satellite into a polar orbit 326 miles above the Earth.

The WISE probe will be able to observe the infrared glow from distant asteroids, stars and galaxies, giving NASA the chance to glimpse some previously unseen celestial objects.

WISE will be able to see the infrared colours of the entire sky with an improved sensitivity and resolution to NASA’s last sky survey 26 years ago.

The $320 million mission (£197m) will last approximately ten months and WISE will spend the majority of that time scanning the sky once over.

According to NASA, almost everything in the universe glows in infrared and therefore enabling this mission to catalogue a number of new astronomical targets.

Commenting on WISE’s successful launch, William Irace, the mission’s Project Manager, said: “All systems are looking good, and we are on our way to seeing the entire infrared sky better than ever before.”