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Astronomy at 41,000+ Feet: The Story of the SOFIA Mission ( Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy)

Astronomy at 41,000+ Feet: The Story of the SOFIA Mission ( Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy). Dana Backman SOFIA Education & Public Outreach, USRA & the SETI Institute. Background info about infrared astronomy The SOFIA Program Aircraft Telescope Putting it Together

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Astronomy at 41,000+ Feet: The Story of the SOFIA Mission ( Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy)

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  1. Astronomy at 41,000+ Feet:The Story of the SOFIA Mission(Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy) Dana Backman SOFIA Education & Public Outreach, USRA & the SETI Institute

  2. Background info about infrared astronomy The SOFIA Program Aircraft Telescope Putting it Together Testing It Education & Public Outreach Outline

  3. William Herschel Discovery of Infrared Radiation - 1800

  4. All the types of “electromagnetic radiation” … Making Light of it All!

  5. Temperature determines themain type of radiation emitted … (left to right: Compton, Chandra, Hubble, and Spitzer space observatories)

  6. Getting the WHOLE picture • An object can look radically different depending on the type of light collected from it: Constellation Orionleft: view at visual wavelengthsright: far-infrared view

  7. But there’s a problem... • Earth’s atmospheric water vapor absorbs almost all incoming infrared radiation • Even mountain-top observatories get a limited view of the infrared universe

  8. View of troposphere / stratosphere boundary from above

  9. And a Solution... • High-flying aircraft --above 40,000 ft -- can observe most of the infrared universe • Airborne infrared telescopes can be more versatile -- and much less expensive -- than space infrared telescopes NASA’s Kuiper Airborne Observatory (KAO) C-141 with a 36-inch telescope onboard, based at NASA-Ames near San Francisco, flew from 1975 - 1996 ,

  10. SOFIA--The Next GenerationAirborne Observatory • 2.5-meter (100-inch) telescope in a Boeing 747SP • To be based at NASA-Dryden, with scientific mission center at NASA-Ames • 140 8-hour research flights per year; 20 year lifetime • 20% share with the German space agency DLR • The world’s largest portable telescope ! • Useful for both visible and infrared research• 1+ month per year in southern hemisphere• First test flights in ‘07, first science in ‘09

  11. The Aircraft - “Clipper Lindbergh”

  12. SOFIA — The Observatory open cavity (door not shown) Educators work station pressure bulkhead scientist stations, telescope and instrument control, etc. TELESCOPE scientific instrument (1 of 9)

  13. Inside, looking aft

  14. The Telescope

  15. The Telescope Primary Mirror

  16. M2 Cameras Forward Bulkhead Counter Weight Hydraulic System Motors Breaks Science Instrument Bearing Sphere M3-1 Focal Plane M3-2 Focal Plane Imager Focal Plane Imager Vibration Isolation Primary Mirror M1 Major Telescope Components

  17. Putting it together -L-3 Communications Integrated Systems,Waco, TX

  18. Testing It - Observing Polaris with telescopeand scientific instrument - August ‘04

  19. Testing It - inside the cabinduring Polaris observations

  20. One of SOFIA’s 9 scientific instruments that are being built at universities and research institutes in the U.S. and Germany [this is the HIPO instrument crew from Lowell Observatory, Flagstaff]

  21. Test flights began April 26, 2007

  22. What does SOFIA add to what the Hubble Space Telescope and the Spitzer Space Telescope can do? SOFIA collects and analyzes infrared radiation of types Hubble cannot: Hubble has a near-infrared camera; SOFIA also has mid- and far-infrared cameras SOFIA is 3x larger than the Spitzer infrared telescope, thus SOFIA can see details 3x smaller and distinguish objects in regions 9x as crowded as can Spitzer SOFIA has a much larger set of instruments than either Spitzer or Hubble, especially a comprehensive set of spectrometers that measure composition and motions of celestial objects SOFIA is designed to operate for 20 years, equal to Hubble’s planned lifetime longer than Spitzer and most other NASA observatories Teachers, journalists and other guests can fly onboard SOFIA as partners with the astronomers and learn how scientific research really works SOFIA Science Vision

  23. 90 cm telescope KAO & Spitzer

  24. 250 cm telescope SOFIA

  25. Constellation Orionright: far-IR view, star forming regions

  26. Organic Growth & Chemistry in the ISM Fossil / Delivery Formation Processing

  27. Feeding the Black Hole in the Center of the Galaxy • The ring of dust and gas will fall into the black hole • Many if not all galaxies seem to have central black holes like out galaxy -- a clue to how galaxies form? • Our galaxy’s central black hole is obscured by dust, and is only observable by infrared observatories like SOFIA • Astronomers observing fast-moving stars and gas infer a 4 million solar mass black hole at the center of our Milky Way galaxy

  28. Toward Occulted Star Motion of Occulting Object Object Shadow of Occulting Object Earth SOFIA Occultation Studies of Objects in our Solar System • SOFIA can probe the sizes, structures (rings), and atmospheres of solar system bodies by measuring how they occult background stars • SOFIA is uniquely suited for this because it can deploy over most of the Earth to be in the right place at the right time: • Can pick from hundreds of events each year

  29. Typical (hypothetical) flight path

  30. Southern hemisphere deployment --flight plan to study the Galactic Center

  31. SOFIA’s over-all program management is located at NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center in southern California, next to Edwards AFB. • Management of SOFIA’s science and mission operations is at NASA’s Ames Research Center in northern California, in Silicon Valley, contracted toUniversities Space Research Association (USRA) • A consortium of 102 universities in the US and abroad • 20 research facilities and programs - some at each NASA center • Operator of the Lunar and Planetary Institute in Houston

  32. Back to the good old KAO …

  33. Airborne Astronomy Education & Outreach Ames Research Center FOSTER Flight Staff Mission Director Scientists Teachers Reporter It’s 3 AM onboard the KAO ...

  34. Someone You Know Could Fly on SOFIA • Airborne Astronomy Ambassadors- About 100 educators per year will fly on SOFIA - Classroom teachers - Planetarium & science center staff - Community college faculty - Amateur astronomers • SOFIA--”A space observatory that comes home every morning”

  35. SOFIA science project home page http://www.sofia.usra.edu Spitzer Space Telescope’s award-winning infrared tutorial http://coolcosmos.ipac.caltech.edu (includes instructions for home-made Herschel demo) For further information:

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