Sofia Telescope Views Orion

NASA’s Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (Sofia) returned early Dec. 1 from a 10-hr. science shakedown flight with its first bounty — images of the heart of the Orion star cluster taken at infrared (IR) wavelengths that are not possible by any ground or space telescope. The mission originated and ended at NASA’s Dryden Aircraft Operations Facility in Palmdale, Calif., and was conducted at 39,000-45,000 ft. altitude over the Pacific Ocean south and west of San Diego. “These initial science flights mark a significant milestone in Sofia’s development and ability to conduct peer-reviewed science observations,” says NASA Astrophysics Division Director Jon Morse. “The first science flight showed that the Sofia observatory works well,” says Sofia Project Manager Alois Himmes of the German space agency DLR. Sofia’s 100-in. dia. IR telescope from the DLR’s German Aerospace Center is housed in the aft fuselage of a modified 747SP. A variety of science instruments can be fitted to the telescope, the largest of its kind, for specific imaging assignments. Cornell University’s Faint Object InfraRed Camera for the Sofia Telescope (known as Forcast) was selected for the initial flight and will be used on two missions – scheduled for Dec. 3 and 7, respectively – before the German Receiver for Astronomy at Terahertz Frequencies (Great) from the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy is installed for a second phase of the airplane’s initial science program to begin in February. The Great instrument will be installed in late January 2011 but not fly until mid-March because of other software updates. By flying well above the dust and pollution of Earth’s lower atmosphere, Sofia is optimized for observations in IR that cannot be made from ground observatories or from any other telescope currently in space.