SOFIA, the world's largest flying telescope

1. SOFIA
The world’s largest flying telescope

2. SOFIA is a really
big deal!
• NASA’s airborne infrared
observatories — the Learjet
Observatory, the Kuiper
Airborne Observatory and
SOFIA — are pictured next to
illustrations showing how the
size of each telescope
approximately compares to
an adult.
• Credits: NASA/SOFIA/L.
Proudfit

3. Astronomers are using SOFIA to study many different kinds of astronomical objects and phenomena, including:
• Star birth and death
• The formation of new solar systems
• Identification of complex molecules in space
• Planets, comets and asteroids in our solar system
• Nebulae and the ecosystems of galaxies
• Celestial magnetic fields
• ​Black holes at the center of galaxies

4. History of Airborne Astronomy at NASA
• The following story is compiled from NASA information and is used with permission.
• Credits: NASA/SOFIA/L. Proudfit
• NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley manages the SOFIA program, science
and mission operations in cooperation with the Universities Space Research Association
headquartered in Columbia, Maryland, and the German SOFIA Institute (DSI) at the University of
Stuttgart. The aircraft is operated and maintained from NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center
Hangar 703, in Palmdale, California.
• Kassandra Bell
• SOFIA Science Center
• Last Updated: Sept. 25, 2018
• Editor: Kassandra Bell

5. In the beginning…
• Sixty years ago, in 1958, NASA was founded as the National Aeronautics and Space
Administration. The agency has a long history of using airplanes to study space. Flying at high
altitudes puts telescopes above the water vapor in Earth’s atmosphere that blocks certain types
of light, like infrared, from reaching ground-based telescopes. Airborne observatories can also
go anywhere to conduct observations, enabling researchers to study transient events, such as
the eclipse-like events called occultations to learn about distant planets and objects. When
airborne observatories land after each flight, the telescope instruments, such as specialized
cameras, can be upgraded or serviced, and new ones can be built to harness new technologies
— which is not possible on most space-based telescopes.

6. Galileo I
• NASA’s Galileo I aircraft during a
flight to study a solar eclipse in
1965. The modified Convair-990
aircraft had multiple observations
windows in the top left side of the
aircraft.
• Credits: NASA

7. NASA paved the way for airborne astronomy in 1965 by flying a
modified Convair 990 aircraft to study a solar eclipse from inside the
path of totality. In 1968, astronomers used 12-inch telescopes in the
cabins of Learjet aircraft to study objects like Venus using infrared
light.
The Learjet Observatory (Learjet 24B aircraft) flying above California in the early 1970’s. The
telescope was just in front of the wing. Right: Scientist Carl Gillespie using a 12-inch infrared
telescope while flying aboard the Learjet 23 aircraft at 50,000 feet in 1968.
Credits: NASA
• Photos above: Left- The Kuiper Airborne Observatory flies with its
telescope door open in 1980. The converted C-141 aircraft had a 36-inch
telescope just in front of the wing. Right- Inside the KAO, where the
mission crew sat during flight. These consoles were positioned along the
side of the aircraft's cabin. The portion of the telescope system that was
inside the cabin can be seen at the back of the image. The open
telescope cavity was separate from the pressurized cabin.
• Credits: NASA

8. The Learjet Observatory
• The work on the Learjet Observatory led to
the development of NASA's Kuiper Airborne
Observatory, or KAO, a converted C-141 cargo
aircraft that carried a 36-inch reflecting
telescope. Named after the planetary
scientist Gerard Kuiper, it operated from
NASA’s Ames Research Center in California
from 1975 to 1995. Scientists used the KAO
for solar system research, galactic and extra-
galactic observations, and even studied the
space shuttle’s heat shield in infrared light as
it re-entered Earth’s atmosphere. Image right: C-
141 (NASA-714) Kuiper Airborne Observatory in flight,
telescope hatch open. Image courtesy: NASA.

9. Discoveries
made from
the Kuiper
Airborne
Observatory
included:
Pluto’s atmosphere
​Rings around Uranus
​A ring of star formation around the center
of the Milky Way
Complex organic molecules in space
Water in comets and in Jupiter’s
atmosphere

10. The Kuiper Airborne Observatory was decommissioned in
1995 to enable the development of a flying observatory
with a larger, more powerful infrared telescope — the
Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA).
• Left: SOFIA soars over the snow-covered Sierra Nevada mountains with its
telescope door open during a test flight. Right: Inside SOFIA during an
observing flight at 40,000 feet. The mission crew, including telescope operators
and scientists, sit facing the telescope at the back of the aircraft. The portion of
the telescope that is inside the cabin is the blue round structure. The beige wall
around the blue telescope structure is a pressure bulkhead that separates the
open telescope cavity from the pressurized cabin, so the cabin environment
feels similar to a commercial aircraft.
• Credits: Left: NASA/Jim Ross Right: NASA/DLR/Fabian Walker

11. Who made this
happen?
• NASA and the German Aerospace
Center (DLR) jointly operate SOFIA.
They chose a Boeing 747SP aircraft to
carry the largest airborne telescope to
date, at 106 inches (2.7 meters) in
diameter. NASA modified and
maintains the aircraft — which once
flew for both Pan American World
Airways and United Airlines — that
now carries the telescope, its support
systems, and the mission crew. The DLR
designed, built and maintains the
telescope which operates while flying
at altitudes up to 45,000 feet at more
than 650 mph.

12. SOFIA’s telescope,
as seen during
construction before
its reflective
aluminum coating
was applied, reveals
the honeycomb
design that reduces
its weight by 80%.
Credits: NASA/Ron Strong

13. Inside Sofia, NASA's Airplane-
Mounted Telescope
• Aircraft modifications included
cutting the hole for the telescope
cavity, adding a new pressure
bulkhead to separate the
pressurized cabin from the cavity,
and adding airflow ramps around the
cavity that allow the plane to fly
normally while the telescope door is
open. Inside the cabin, mission
control systems required for the
observatory replaced the seats from
the aircraft’s days as a passenger
plane. The modifications and test
flights took place in Waco, Texas and
at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research
Center Hangar 703. About 20 people
are aboard each flight to operate the
aircraft, control the telescope and
collect astronomical data.
https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/SOFIA/sofia_
sees_first_light.html

14. Astronomers are using SOFIA to study many different kinds
of astronomical objects and phenomena, including:
STAR BIRTH AND
DEATH
THE FORMATION OF
NEW SOLAR SYSTEMS
IDENTIFICATION OF
COMPLEX MOLECULES
IN SPACE
PLANETS, COMETS
AND ASTEROIDS IN
OUR SOLAR SYSTEM
NEBULAE AND THE
ECOSYSTEMS OF
GALAXIES
CELESTIAL MAGNETIC
FIELDS
​BLACK HOLES AT THE
CENTER OF GALAXIES

15. Far-infrared maps of Jupiter
• For the first time since the twin Voyager spacecraft
missions in 1979, scientists have produced far-infrared
maps of Jupiter using NASA’s Stratospheric Observatory
for Infrared Astronomy, SOFIA. These maps were created
from the researchers’ studies of the circulation of gases
within the gas giant planet’s atmosphere.
• Far-Infrared observations provide details not
possible at other wavelengths. When gas planets like
Jupiter are studied with visible light, they can only see
the light reflecting from the top of the gas clouds that
make up the atmosphere. Using infrared light allows
scientists to see past the clouds and into the deep layers
of the atmosphere, providing a three-dimensional view
of the planet and the ability to study how gasses
circulate within the atmosphere.
• Credits: NVeronico@sofia.usra.edu, SOFIA Science
Center
• NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field,
California 01/05/2017

16. Don’t Judge an Asteroid by its Cover: Mid-infrared
Data from SOFIA Shows Ceres’ True Composition
See more detail below.

17. • SOFIA took this image of comet 46P/Wirtanen on Dec. 16 and 17, 2018.
• Credits: NASA/SOFIA
• The SOFIA image was taken with the telescope's visible-light
guide camera, using an orange filter to indicate the intensity of
light relative to other objects. SOFIA's observations using infrared
light to study the comet's water are now under analysis.
• Illustration of the molecular clouds surrounded by atomic envelopes, in green,
which have been detected by SOFIA via emission from ionized carbon. The spatial
offset and motions of these envelopes confirm predictions of simulations of cloud
collisions.
• Credits: NASA/SOFIA/Lynette Cook
• Credits: NASA/SOFIA

18. Magnetic Fields May Be the Key to Black Hole Activity
• Artist’s conception of the core of Cygnus A, including the dusty donut-shaped
surroundings, called a torus, and jets launching from its center. Magnetic
fields are illustrated trapping the dust in the torus. These magnetic fields
could be helping power the black hole hidden in the galaxy’s core by
confining the dust in the torus and keeping it close enough to be gobbled up
by the hungry black hole.
• Credits: NASA/SOFIA/Lynette Cook
• Two images of Cygnus A layered over each other to show the galaxy’s jets
glowing with radio radiation (shown in red). Quiescent galaxies, like our own
Milky Way, do not have jets like this, which may be related to magnetic
fields. The yellow image shows background stars and the center of the galaxy
shrouded in dust when observed with visible light. The area SOFIA observed
is inside the small red dot in the center.
• Credits: Optical Image: NASA/STSiC Radio Image: NSF/NRAO/AUI/VLA

19. These images show the infrared radiation emitted by the dust and the magnetic fields in 30 Dor, which is a star-forming region
within the Tarantula Nebula located in the satellite galaxy called the Large Magellanic Cloud.
• Images taken at multiple wavelengths showing the dust and the magnetic fields in 30 Doradus. The color scale shows the intensity
of the infrared radiation from the dust, or dust emission, and the lines show the morphology, or the structure, of the magnetic
fields. The images taken at the shorter wavelengths (53- 89 microns), reveal warmer dust, while the images taken at the longer
wavelengths (154-214 microns) show cooler dust.
• Credits: NASA/SOFIA
• Using the observatory’s newest instrument, which has a
device called a polarimeter that maps celestial magnetic
fields, the SOFIA team observed 30 Dor in a range of
wavelengths sensitive to dust temperatures between 10-100
Kelvin (-441 to -280 F). The images taken at the shorter
wavelengths reveal warmer dust, while the images taken at
the longer wavelengths show cooler dust. These can be used
to study potential disturbances on the magnetic fields in the
dense and compact regions of 30 Dor, as well as the large-
scale magnetic fields governing the whole structure of the
nebula — both of which may impact star formation.
• “SOFIA’s pioneering observing techniques let us gather this
exciting data,” said Kimberly Ennico Smith, SOFIA project
scientist. “We’re thrilled to offer it to the scientific
community so soon after the observations were completed.”
• The data are available: https://go.nasa.gov/2KVPPba

20. For more information about the crew go to:
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11888757
• Provided by Public Affairs Section | 30 August, 2017 |
Categories: Ambassador, Connecting with Kiwis, News, Science & Tech, U.S. & New
Zealand, Youth Outreach | Tags: Girlboss, NASA, SOFIA
• Meet Alexia Hilbertidou, the 18-year-old founder of GirlBoss and the youngest person
to be involved with Nasa's Sofia mission may be the youngest person ever to go on a
project mission with NASA, but that's not her only accolade.
The 18-year-old Aucklander is the founder of GirlBoss, a social enterprise which aims to
empower women in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

21. How can I learn more about SOFIA?
• NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley manages the SOFIA program, science
and mission operations in cooperation with the Universities Space Research Association
headquartered in Columbia, Maryland, and the German SOFIA Institute (DSI) at the University of
Stuttgart. The aircraft is operated and maintained from NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research
Center Hangar 703, in Palmdale, California.
• For more information about SOFIA, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/sofia • http://www.dlr.de/en/sofia
• For information about SOFIA's science mission and scientific instruments, visit:
http://www.sofia.usra.edu • http://www.dsi.uni-stuttgart.de/index.en.html
• Points of Contact
• Nicholas A. Veronico
NVeronico@sofia.usra.edu • SOFIA Science Center
NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, California