Astronomy

SOFIA, or the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, doesn’t look much like an observatory, but more likely a 747 aircraft. Mounted in the fuselage of this bird is an infrared telescope nearly 10 feet wide, weighing almost 19 tons.

NASA and the DLR, German Aerospace Center, are working together to create SOFIA. A Boeing 747SP aircraft have modified by L-3 Communications Integrated Systems to accommodate a 2.5 meter reflecting telescope. SOFIA will be the largest airborne observatory in the world, and will make observations that are impossible for even the largest and highest of ground-based telescopes.

The observatory is being developed and operated for NASA by a team of industry experts led by the Universities Space Research Association. SOFIA will be based at NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center, adjacent to Edwards Air Force Base in southern California. SOFIA’s science and mission operations center will be at NASA’s Ames Research Center in northern California.

On January 2008, NASA announced that they have completing a set of tests with the telescope door closed that help ascertain the highly modified aircraft’s limits in areas including aerodynamics, structural integrity, stability and control, and handling qualities.

Once flying, it will help study the origin of stars, the evolution of organic materials in space, and the nature of the black hole in the Milky Way’s center. Though, normal science operations won’t begin until 2011, and full operations won’t start until 2014. But scientists will be looking forward to seeing what SOFIA’s telescope can see next year.

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