NASA / CARLA THOMASSofia: observatory installed on a modified Boeing 747NASA / CARLA THOMAS
The Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (Sofia), operated by the U.S. space agency NASA, has been given new life. Last month, the U.S. Senate to appropriate $87 million to support the observatory in 2015. The world’s largest flying observatory, Sofia is installed on a Boeing 747 that has been modified for observing the Universe on flights made at an altitude of about 12,000 meters. The proposal must still be confirmed by the House of Representatives. In March, NASA had considered canceling the project, the result of a partnership with German Aerospace Center (DLR), because of high operating costs. The initial budget for the program was $360 million, but by launch time the costs had exceeded $1 billion. Sofia made its first flight in 2010, but only now is it becoming operational. Another event that excited the researchers involved in the program was the startup of operations by the Echelon-Cross-Echelle Spectrograph (EXES), coupled to the Sofia. “The combination of the high spectral resolution of the EXES and the ability of the Sofia to access infrared radiation emitted in space creates unprecedented conditions for studying celestial objects at wavelengths that cannot be accessed from other telescopes,” says NASA researcher Pamela Marcum.
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