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April 9, 2011 - The Stratospheric Observatory for
Infrared Astronomy, or SOFIA, completed its first
science flight Wednesday, April 6, using the German
Receiver for Astronomy at Terahertz Frequencies (GREAT)
scientific instrument. GREAT is a high-resolution
far-infrared spectrometer that finely divides and sorts
light into component colors for detailed analysis.
SOFIA
is the only operational airborne observatory. It is a
joint program between NASA and the German Aerospace
Center (DLR). The observatory is a heavily modified
Boeing 747SP aircraft carrying a reflecting telescope
with an effective diameter of 100 inches.
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Flying at
altitudes between 39,000 and 45,000 feet, above the water vapor
in Earth's lower atmosphere that blocks most infrared radiation
from celestial sources, SOFIA conducts astronomy
research not possible with ground-based telescopes. "SOFIA's
onboard crew seamlessly combined scientists, engineers and
technicians from the U.S. and Germany, working together on an
observatory developed in the U.S., using a telescope and
instrument built in Germany, to gather data of great interest to
the entire world's scientific community," said Bob Meyer, NASA's
SOFIA Program manager at the agency's Dryden Flight Research
Center in Edwards, Calif.
GREAT
Principal Investigator Rolf Guesten of the Max Planck Institute
for Radio Astronomy in Bonn, Germany, and his team conducted observations high
above the central and western
United States
beginning the night of April 5 with their instrument installed
on SOFIA's telescope.
Among their targets were IC 342, a spiral galaxy
located 11 million light-years from Earth in the constellation
Camelopardalis ("The Giraffe"), and the Omega Nebula (known as
M17), 5,000 light-years away in Sagittarius.
The team
captured and analyzed radiation from ionized carbon atoms and
carbon monoxide molecules to probe the chemical reactions,
motions of matter and flows of energy occurring in interstellar
clouds. Astronomers have evidence such clouds in both IC 342 and
M17 are forming numerous massive stars.
"These first spectra are the reward for the many
years of work creating this technology, and underline the
scientific potential of airborne far-infrared spectroscopy,"
Guesten said.
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