MOFFETT FIELD, Calif., 1 June 2010. The Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA), a joint program by NASA and the German Aerospace Center, achieved its first in-flight night observations on May 26. The modified SOFIA Boeing 747SP jetliner fitted with a 100-inch diameter reflecting telescope took off from its home base at the Aircraft Operations Facility in Palmdale, Calif., of NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center.
In-flight personnel consisted of an international crew from NASA, the Universities Space Research Association in Columbia, Md., Cornell University, and the German SOFIA Institute (DSI) in Stuttgart. During the six-hour flight, at altitudes up to 35,000 feet, the crew of 10 scientists, astronomers, engineers, and technicians gathered telescope performance data at consoles in the aircraft's main cabin.
“With this flight, SOFIA begins a 20-year journey that will enable a wide variety of astronomical science observations not possible from other Earth and space-borne observatories," says Jon Morse, Astrophysics Division director in the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "It clearly sets expectations that SOFIA will provide us with 'Great Observatory'-class astronomical science."
"Wind tunnel tests and supercomputer calculations made at the start of the SOFIA program predicted we would have sharp enough images for front-line astronomical research," explains SOFIA project scientist Pam Marcum of NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif. "A preliminary look at the first light data indicates we indeed accomplished that."
"The crowning accomplishment of the night came when scientists on board SOFIA recorded images of Jupiter," observes USRA SOFIA senior science advisor Eric Becklin. "The composite image from SOFIA shows heat, trapped since the formation of the planet, pouring out of Jupiter's interior through holes in its clouds."
The sensitive Faint Object infraRed CAmera for the SOFIA Telescope (FORCAST) used for the initial observations was operated in flight by its builders, a team led by Cornell's Terry Herter. FORCAST captures in minutes images that would require many hour-long exposures by ground-based observatories blocked from a clearinfrared view by water vapor in the Earth's atmosphere. SOFIA's operational altitude, which is above more than 99 percent of that water vapor, allows it to receive 80 percent or more of the infrared light accessible to space observatories.
The SOFIA program is managed at Dryden. Ames manages the SOFIA science and mission operations in cooperation with USRA and DSI.
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