The Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) was a mission of discovery, revealing unseen – and sometimes unseeable – parts of our universe. As the mission draws to a close, with flights ending on Thursday, Sept. 29, NASA is taking a look back at the scientific accomplishments of SOFIA and some of the feats of engineering that let it fly.
“From deepening our understanding of water
on the Moon to revealing the invisible forces of cosmic-scale magnetic fields,
none of it could have happened without the hundreds of people who contributed
their expertise to the SOFIA mission,” said Naseem Rangwala, the mission’s
project scientist at NASA's Ames Research Center in California's Silicon
Valley.
From the start of its development in 1996,
SOFIA required engineering ingenuity. A Boeing 747SP jetliner had to be
modified to carry the 38,000-pound, 100-inch (more than 17,000-kilogram,
2.5-meter) telescope provided by NASA’s partner on the SOFIA mission, the
German Space Agency at DLR.
Engineers at Ames developed a garage
door-like mechanism that rolled up to let the telescope observe the skies. In
that configuration, it was “one of the largest open ports ever flown on an
aircraft,” said Paul Fusco, a NASA engineer, now retired, who helped design the
door system, “and the largest certified to fly at all altitudes and speeds
with the door open. It was a really thrilling aviation innovation.”
This three-dimensional view of the Orion Nebula – Earth’s closest
star-formation nursery – was created using data from the SOFIA mission. It
reveals detailed structure of the nebula, including a "bubble" that
has been blown clear of gas and dust by a powerful stellar wind. In this way,
massive stars can regulate star formation around them, and SOFIA helped
astronomers better understand this effect. Credits: NASA/SOFIA
The mission’s pilots couldn’t even feel when the door was open. And the
stability of the telescope itself was equivalent to keeping a laser pointer
steady on a penny from 10 miles away. SOFIA had achieved a smooth flight
and a steady gaze.
And that was only the beginning. By 2014, the observatory had reached its
full operational capability, and for eight years SOFIA helped astronomers
around the world use infrared light to study an impressive array of cosmic events and
objects invisible to other telescopes.
“SOFIA’s unique scientific achievements were the result of the ingenuity of
the incredible international community that grew up around the mission,” said
Alessandra Roy, SOFIA project scientist for the German Space
Agency, “which was only made possible by the collaboration of NASA and
DLR.”
A community of high school teachers also came to know SOFIA personally,
through the NASA Airborne Astronomy
Ambassadors program. This professional development
opportunity included an immersion experience flying aboard SOFIA with
scientists and crew members. Participating teachers were able to bring this
real-world science content back to their classrooms and reveal diverse
STEM-related careers to students.
Now, the observatory is being retired. Science flights have ended, and the team is exploring options for a
fitting permanent home for this special aircraft. SOFIA’s data from a total of
732 nights observing over the course of the mission will also be publicly
available for scientists to study and conduct further research in the future.
“Infrared astronomy will go on at NASA, most notably with the James Webb Space Telescope,” said Paul Hertz, senior advisor for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate,
former Astrophysics Division director, and former SOFIA program scientist. “But
SOFIA’s many and diverse contributions to science have already left their
mark.”
Source: NASA’s
Legacy of Science, Engineering in Retiring Airborne Observatory | NASA
For more Information:
Here are some ways in which SOFIA changed our understanding of the
universe. Scroll down to read on, or follow a topic with the links below:
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