2013/02/20 by James M. De Buizer, De Buizer, James M.
Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysics and Cosmic Phenomena #Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies #FOS: Physical sciences #Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics (astro-ph.IM) #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1302.5042
openalex publication_date 2013/02/20 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
The Stratospheric Observatory For Infrared Astronomy, or SOFIA, is the largest flying observatory ever built,consisting of a 2.7-meter diameter telescope embedded in a modified Boeing 747-SP aircraft. SOFIA is a joint project between NASA and the German Aerospace Center Deutsches Zentrum fur Luft und-Raumfahrt (DLR). By flying at altitudes up to 45000 feet, the observatory gets above 99.9 percent of the infrared-absorbing water vapor in the Earth's atmosphere. This opens up an almost uninterrupted wavelength range from 0.3-1600 microns that is in large part obscured from ground based observatories. Since its 'Initial Science Flight' in December 2010, SOFIA has flown several dozen science flights, and has observed a wide array of objects from Solar System bodies, to stellar nurseries, to distant galaxies. This paper reviews a few of the exciting new science results from these first flights which were made by three instruments: the mid-infrared camera FORCAST, the far-infrared heterodyne spectrometer GREAT, and the optical occultation photometer HIPO.