Last trip for NASA’s SOFIA infrared telescope
With operations deadline in September, the SOFIA team is eager to squeeze more data out of their infrared observatory
The SOFIA aircraft has returned to New Zealand for a final time ahead of the mission’s conclusion later this year.
The Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) is a modified Boeing 747SP aircraft, designed to carry a 2.7-meter reflecting telescope into the stratosphere, above much of Earth’s infrared-blocking atmosphere.
A collaboration between NASA and the German Aerospace Center (DLR), development began on the project in 1996.
SOFIA saw first light in 2010 and achieved full operational capability in 2014. Its prime mission was completed in 2019 and earlier this year, it was decided that SOFIA would be grounded for budgetary reasons. Operations end “no later than” September 30, 2022, followed by an “orderly shutdown.”
Scientists are therefore keen to squeeze as much data from the platform as possible. Following a quick trip to Santiago, Chile, for a two-week deployment to observe the Large Magellanic Cloud, SOFIA is making its seventh and final trip to New Zealand for a look at skies in the Southern Hemisphere.
Thirty-two flights are planned in this last international deployment, and the intention is to observe a wide range of celestial objects and phenomena including magnetic fields and cosmic rays.
SOFIA project scientist Dr Naseem Rangwala said: “We are committed to delivering a strong finish for this unique astrophysics mission, from a place of strength and pride, by giving our scientific community as much data as possible from the Southern Hemisphere.”
The first trip to New Zealand was taken three years after SOFIA launched. Nine years on, this deployment will be the last.
There are some concerns within the scientific community that not all the capabilities of SOFIA are available elsewhere, particularly at wavelengths even longer than those observable by the James Webb Space Telescope. SOFIA also has the benefit of being accessible for payload upgrade purposes.
However, budgets are budgets, and the management did not feel that the operational costs of the observatory justified its scientific productivity.
In the near future, SOFIA’s data will be available in NASA’s public archives. And the observatory? It is currently maintained and operated by NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Palmdale, California.
One can but hope that a friendly museum will step up to take delivery of both aircraft and payload once the final observations have been completed.
See more here: theregister
Header image: NASA
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Jerry Krause
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Hi MattH and PSI Readers,
Matt, you know I have just written about the precipitation weather being possibly observed by infrared radar from satellites. What seems to me an obvious question with an obvious answer is: Why cannot a “2.7-meter reflecting telescope” be placed on a satellite pointing upward or downward to scan for infrared radiation? So that it seems that the “SOFIA” project is now obsolete.
Do I know what NASA has been doing? NO!!! But I know that lots of taxpayers dollars have been spent and is being still spent on many NASA project about which many of us are only learning.
And I have to admit, as I ponder about this radar weather, that I cannot claim I know how it is being observed. But I know from personal experience that it does precipitate when the green image is over where I live and observe actual precipitation.
Have a good day, Jerry
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Gary Brown
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Jun 20, 2022 The Sun Controls Extreme Weather, Galaxy Physics & More | S0 News
Daily Sun, Earth and Science News!
https://youtu.be/yJQtG02GhJg
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Jerry Krause
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Hi Gary,
Went to you link and watched and listened several times. As I watched, I understand that I watched 24 hours of solar activity in less than a minute. Is my understanding correct?
During the less than a minute, I saw something I didn’t expect. Which was a few tiny “white” sunspots. I had thought (assumed) that the sunspots that Galileo observed, with his telescope, were darker spots (of larger areas) of cooler surfaces.
Now that I see the small white spots of which Galileo, with his probable lower power telescope, likely never saw. It seems I have to assume that the white spots are of surfaces whose temperatures are greater than the temperatures of the ‘vast areas (which dominate the sun surface) emitting the reddish light. Is this assumption about the differences of these surface temperatures correct?
Have a good day, Jerry
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