Stephen Battersby, consultant
The Milky Way's disk and central bulge are traced out in blue, representing infrared light with a wavelength of 3.4 micrometres, which mainly comes from stars.
The bluish blobs to the bottom right are our two largest satellite galaxies, the Large and Small Magellanic clouds, more than 150,000 light years away. Andromeda forms a small blue streak to the lower left, and the image is dotted with more distant galaxies.
Longer-wavelength radiation, coloured green and red, comes from dust clouds. Just above the galactic disk near the centre of the image is the Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex, only 130 light years away, where new stars are forming.
Among the discoveries made by WISE are many near-Earth asteroids, as well as a new class of super-cool stars called Y-dwarfs.