We use the AllWISE Data Release to continue our search for WISE-detected motions. In this paper, we publish another 27,846 motion objects, bringing the total number to 48,000 when objects found during our original AllWISE motion survey are included. We use this list, along with the lists of confirmed WISE-based motion objects from the recent papers by Luhman and by Schneider et al. and candidate motion objects from the recent paper by Gagne et al. to search for widely separated, common-proper-motion systems. We identify 1,039 such candidate systems. All 48,000 objects are further analyzed using color-color and color-mag plots to provide possible characterizations prior to spectroscopic follow-up. We present spectra of 172 of these, supplemented with new spectra of 23 comparison objects from the literature, and provide classifications and physical interpretations of interesting sources. Highlights include: (1) the identification of three G/K dwarfs that can be used as standard candles to study clumpiness and grain size in nearby molecular clouds because these objects are currently moving behind the clouds, (2) the confirmation/discovery of several M, L, and T dwarfs and one white dwarf whose spectrophotometric distance estimates place them 5-20 pc from the Sun, (3) the suggestion that the Na 'D' line be used as a diagnostic tool for interpreting and classifying metal-poor late-M and L dwarfs, (4) the recognition of a triple system including a carbon dwarf and late-M subdwarf, for which model fits of the late-M subdwarf (giving [Fe/H] ~ -1.0) provide a measured metallicity for the carbon star, and (5) a possible 24-pc-distant K5 dwarf + peculiar red L5 system with an apparent physical separation of 0.1 pc.

We have carried out simulations to predict the performance of a new space-based telescopic survey operating at thermal infrared wavelengths that seeks to discover and characterize a large fraction of the potentially hazardous near-Earth asteroid (NEA) population. Two potential architectures for the survey were considered: one located at the Earth-Sun L1 Lagrange point, and one in a Venus-trailing orbit. A sample cadence was formulated and tested, allowing for the self-follow-up necessary for objects discovered in the daytime sky on Earth. Synthetic populations of NEAs with sizes >=140 m in effective spherical diameter were simulated using recent determinations of their physical and orbital properties. Estimates of the instrumental sensitivity, integration times, and slew speeds were included for both architectures assuming the properties of new large-format 10 um detector arrays capable of operating at ~35 K. Our simulation included the creation of a preliminary version of a moving object processing pipeline suitable for operating on the trial cadence. We tested this pipeline on a simulated sky populated with astrophysical sources such as stars and galaxies extrapolated from Spitzer and WISE data, the catalog of known minor planets (including Main Belt asteroids, comets, Jovian Trojans, etc.), and the synthetic NEA model. Trial orbits were computed for simulated position-time pairs extracted from the synthetic surveys to verify that the tested cadence would result in orbits suitable for recovering objects at a later time. Our results indicate that the Earth-Sun L1 and Venus-trailing surveys achieve similar levels of integral completeness for potentially hazardous asteroids larger than 140 m; placing the telescope in an interior orbit does not yield an improvement in discovery rates. This work serves as a necessary first step for the detailed planning of a next-generation NEA survey.

The AllWISE processing pipeline has measured motions for all objects detected on Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) images taken between 2010 January and 2011 February. In this paper, we discuss new capabilities made to the software pipeline in order to make motion measurements possible, and we characterize the resulting data products for use by future researchers. Using a stringent set of selection criteria, we find 22,445 objects that have significant AllWISE motions, of which 3525 have motions that can be independently confirmed from earlier Two Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS) images, yet lack any published motions in SIMBAD. Another 58 sources lack 2MASS counterparts and are presented as motion candidates only. Limited spectroscopic follow-up of this list has already revealed eight new L subdwarfs. These may provide the first hints of a "subdwarf gap" at mid-L types that would indicate the break between the stellar and substellar populations at low metallicities (i.e., old ages). Another object in the motion list-WISEA J154045.67-510139.3-is a bright (J approximate to 9mag) object of type M6; both the spectrophotometric distance and a crude preliminary parallax place it similar to 6 pc from the Sun. We also compare our list of motion objects to the recently published list of 762 WISE motion objects from Luhman. While these first large motion studies with WISE data have been very successful in revealing previously overlooked nearby dwarfs, both studies missed objects that the other found, demonstrating that many other nearby objects likely await discovery in the AllWISE data products.

NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) spacecraft has been brought out of hibernation and has resumed surveying the sky at 3.4 and 4.6 um. The scientific objectives of the NEOWISE reactivation mission are to detect, track, and characterize near-Earth asteroids and comets. The search for minor planets resumed on December 23, 2013, and the first new near-Earth object (NEO) was discovered six days later. As an infrared survey, NEOWISE detects asteroids based on their thermal emission and is equally sensitive to high and low albedo objects; consequently, NEOWISE-discovered NEOs tend to be large and dark. Over the course of its three-year mission, NEOWISE will determine radiometrically-derived diameters and albedos for approximately 2000 NEOs and tens of thousands of Main Belt asteroids. The 32 months of hibernation have had no significant effect on the mission's performance. Image quality, sensitivity, photometric and astrometric accuracy, completeness, and the rate of minor planet detections are all essentially unchanged from the prime mission's post-cryogenic phase.

Combining the Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer All-Sky Release with the Two Micron All Sky Survey Point Source Catalog, we detect a nearby, moderately metal-poor stellar debris stream spanning 24 degrees across the southern sky. The stream, which we designate Alpheus, is at an estimated distance of similar to 1.9 kpc. Its position, orientation, width, estimated metallicity, and, to some extent, its distance, are in approximate agreement with what one might expect of the leading tidal tail of the southern globular cluster NGC 288.

We characterize the star formation in the low-metallicity galaxy NGC 6822 over the past few hundred million years, using GALEX far-UV (FUV, 1344-1786 A) and near-UV (NUV, 1771-2831 A) imaging, and ground-based Ha imaging. From GALEX FUV image, we define 77 star-forming (SF) regions with area >860 pc^2, and surface brightness <=26.8 mag(AB)arcsec^-2, within 0.2deg (1.7kpc) of the center of the galaxy. We estimate the extinction by interstellar dust in each SF region from resolved photometry of the hot stars it contains: E(B-V) ranges from the minimum foreground value of 0.22mag up to 0.66+-0.21mag. The integrated FUV and NUV photometry, compared with stellar population models, yields ages of the SF complexes up to a few hundred Myr, and masses from 2x10^2 Msun to 1.5x10^6 Msun. The derived ages and masses strongly depend on the assumed type of interstellar selective extinction, which we find to vary across the galaxy. The total mass of the FUV-defined SF regions translates into an average star formation rate (SFR) of 1.4x10^-2 Msun/yr over the past 100 Myr, and SFR=1.0x10^-2 Msun/yr in the most recent 10 Myr. The latter is in agreement with the value that we derive from the Ha luminosity, SFR=0.008 Msun/yr. The SFR in the most recent epoch becomes higher if we add the SFR=0.02 Msun/yr inferred from far-IR measurements, which trace star formation still embedded in dust (age <= a few Myr).

The Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) has surveyed the entire sky at four infrared wavelengths with greatly improved sensitivity and spatial resolution compared to its predecessors, the Infrared Astronomical Satellite and the Cosmic Background Explorer. NASA's Planetary Science Division has funded an enhancement to the WISE data processing system called "NEOWISE" that allows detection and archiving of moving objects found in the WISE data. NEOWISE has mined the WISE images for a wide array of small bodies in our solar system, including near-Earth objects (NEOs), Main Belt asteroids, comets, Trojans, and Centaurs. By the end of survey operations in 2011 February, NEOWISE identified over 157,000 asteroids, including more than 500 NEOs and ∼120 comets. The NEOWISE data set will enable a panoply of new scientific investigations.

We have discovered recent star formation in the outermost portion (1-4x R_25) of the nearby lenticular (S0) galaxy NGC 404 using GALEX UV imaging. FUV-bright sources are strongly concentrated within the galaxy's HI ring (formed by a merger event according to del Rio et al.), even though the average gas density is dynamically subcritical. Archival HST imaging reveals resolved upper main sequence stars and conclusively demonstrates that the UV light originates from recent star formation activity. We present FUV, NUV radial surface brightness profiles and integrated magnitudes for NGC 404. Within the ring, the average star formation rate surface density (Sigma_{SFR}) is 2.2x10^-5 Msun/yr/kpc^2. Of the total FUV flux, 70% comes from the HI ring which is forming stars at a rate of 2.5x10^-3 Msun/yr. The gas consumption timescale, assuming a constant SFR and no gas recycling, is several times the age of the Universe. In the context of the UV-optical galaxy CMD, the presence of the SF HI ring places NGC 404 in the green valley separating the red and blue sequences. The rejuvenated lenticular galaxy has experienced a merger-induced, disk-building excursion away from the red sequence toward bluer colors, where it may evolve quiescently or (if appropriately triggered) experience a burst capable of placing it on the blue/star-forming sequence for up to ~1 Gyr. The green valley galaxy population is heterogeneous, with most systems transitioning from blue to red but others evolving in the opposite sense due to acquisition of fresh gas through various channels.

One possible channel for the formation of dwarf galaxies involves birth in the tidal tails of interacting galaxies. We report the detection of a bright UV tidal tail and several young tidal dwarf galaxy (TDG) candidates in the post-merger galaxy NGC 4922 in the Coma cluster. Based on a two-component population model ( combining young and old stellar populations), we find that the light of tidal tail predominantly comes from young stars (a few Myr old). The Galaxy Evolution Explorer ultraviolet data played a critical role in the parameter (age and mass) estimation. Our stellar mass estimates of the TDG candidates are similar to 10(6-7) M-circle dot, typical for dwarf galaxies.

Studying the environments of 0.4 < z < 1.2 ultraviolet (UV)-selected galaxies, as examples of extreme star-forming galaxies (with star formation rates (SFRs) in the range of 3-30 M-circle dot yr(-1)), we explore the relationship between high rates of star formation, host halo mass, and pair fractions. We study the large-and small-scale environments of local ultraviolet luminous galaxies (UVLGs) by measuring angular correlation functions. We cross-correlate these systems with other galaxy samples: a volume-limited sample (ALL), a blue luminous galaxy sample, and a luminous red galaxy (LRG) sample. We determine the UVLG comoving correlation length to be r(0) = 4.8(-2.4)(+11.6) h(-1) Mpc at < z > = 1.0, which is unable to constrain the halo mass for this sample. However, we find that UVLGs form close (separation < 30 kpc) pairs with the ALL sample, but do not frequently form pairs with LRGs. A rare subset of UVLGs, those with the highest FUV surface brightnesses, are believed to be local analogs of high-redshift Lyman break galaxies (LBGs) and are called Lyman break analogs (LBAs). LBGs and LBAs share similar characteristics (i.e., color, size, surface brightness, specific SFRs, metallicities, and dust content). Recent Hubble Space Telescope images of z similar to 0.2 LBAs show disturbed morphologies, signs of mergers and interactions. UVLGs may be influenced by interactions with other galaxies and we discuss this result in terms of other high star-forming, merging systems.