Asteroids Near Earth . ... New results from NEOWISE , the infrared asteroid hunting portion of the WISE mission , are shown on the left compared to old population projections of mid-size or larger near-Earth asteroids from surveys at visible wavelengths. ... Based on infrared imaging, the NEOWISE results are more accurate as well. ... NEOWISE results reduce the estimated number of mid-size near-Earth asteroids from about 35,000 to 19,500, but the majority still remain undiscovered . ...