SOFIA, NASA’s First Flying Observatory
“It will give us better clarity than we could ever imagine, and enable us to see things we couldn’t even think about seeing,” SOFIA’s chief scientist, Eric Becklin said.
Currently undertaking flight tests at NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center in Edwards, California, SOFIA briefly visited the NASA Ames Research Center on Monday, January 14, 2008. Employees of the Ames Center were allowed to visit the 98.4-inch infrared telescope that was mounted on a modified Boeing 747SP aircraft. Superior to Earth-based telescopes, it will be able to fly at 41,000 to 45,000 feet that will enable scientific observations to be performed unlike before. Two years of flight-testing will allow it to be managed by NASA’s Ames to perform science and mission operations.
The Boeing 747SP airplane used to fly passengers across the Pacific Ocean, and now carries a 17-ton telescope to explore the Universe, looking for new stars in the Orion nebula and probing a black hole in the middle of the Milky Way galaxy. The telescope fills the entire aft cabin of the plane, and whose mirror is larger than the mirror of the Hubble Space Telescope. The name “Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy” is abbreviated down to SOFIA.
Once the Boeing 747SP is ready to take off with SOFIA, stars will be able to be observed as they glow in the infrared region of the spectrum. Infrared is able to pierce clouds of dust in interstellar space, and can reach molecules of water vapor eight miles in the sky, according to NASA. The United Airlines sold the Boeing 747SP to NASA, with the Germany Space Agency building the telescope. Test flights will be in process for two years, with flights open to global astronomers sometime later this year.
Recently completing its first phase of flight testing, confirming SOFIA’s structural integrity and performance, and after the visit to Ames, SOFIA flew to the newly developed Dryden Aircraft Operations Facility, which is operated by NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center in Palmdale, California. It will based here for additional developments, flight testing, and its entire operational lifetime, with the SOFIA science operations to be managed by NASA Ames.
Presently, the most important instrument in the history of astronomy since 1990 is the Hubble Space Telescope that is in orbit around Earth. It was named after astronomer Edwin Hubble, and has offered many observations that have led to breakthroughs in astrophysics. The Hubble has many reasons for its success in space, as compared to ground-based telescopes: the atmosphere does not blur the images; no background from air-scattered light; and ultra-violet light can be observed by the Hubble telescope that normally is absorbed by the ozone layer in Earth-based observations.
This entry was posted on Saturday, January 19th, 2008 at 12:46 pm and is filed under Space Agency News, The Gear to Get There. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
