Because Clavius is on the sunlit, Earth-facing side of Luna, its presence shows that precious water deposits might not be limited to permanently shadowed, cold lunar locations. SOFIA also confirmed the presence of water in the soil of Clavius Crater on the Moon - a find made during the observatory’s first-ever look at our satellite. Although astronomers had been looking for helium hydride since the 1970s, it took SOFIA's capabilities to finally spot it in 2019. One of the biggest and most recent was the detection of helium hydride - the earliest molecule believed to have formed in the universe - within the planetary nebula NGC 7027. Since seeing first light in 2010, SOFIA has racked up a number of impressive accomplishments. “SOFIA found its own niche … and used it to do science that isn't possible from anywhere else,” Pete Ashton, a SOFIA instrument scientist, tells Astronomy. This innovative solution, following in the footsteps of previous airborne observatories before it, merged the capabilities of a space-based observatory with the convenience and access of a ground-based one. Astronomers flying with the telescope even could make tweaks and repairs mid-observation, if necessary. And because SOFIA landed after each flight, instruments could be easily swapped out, repaired, and upgraded. Flying at altitudes of 37,000 to 45,000 feet, SOFIA carried researchers and instruments into the high and dry stratosphere, above nearly all water vapor. But a space telescope is an expensive, time-consuming endeavor fraught with challenges that could end it before - or just after - it gets off the ground. Several telescopes with either dedicated infrared instruments or those capable of observing some longer wavelengths have been made. Launching a telescope to space seems the natural best choice to get above pesky atmospheric water vapor. (Think of the infrared views of, say, the Pillars of Creation, which reveal the young stars normally hidden within sculpted clouds of gas and dust.) Because infrared light is not absorbed by cool dust the way visible light is, the former often reveals what’s behind curtains of obscuring material that block our views in the visible portion of the spectrum. Observations at these wavelengths are particularly useful when studying astronomical targets such as cool stars, dust and gas, planets, and moons. Infrared light has wavelengths longer than visible light, spanning the range from about 1 to 1,000 micrometers (μm). But it’s just one piece in the toolbox astronomers use to view the infrared universe. JWST has rightly stolen headlines recently. But the legacy it leaves behind is something to cherish. The loss of SOFIA, according to those who flew on it, will be profound. 28/29, taking off from and landing at Palmdale, California. SOFIA’s final flight was overnight on Sept. Rather than going all the way to space, however, SOFIA simply flew high enough - up to 45,000 feet (13.7 kilometers) - to get above some 99 percent of the water in our atmosphere.īut earlier this year, NASA and the German Space Agency announced SOFIA would be shut down by Sept. The airborne observatory carried a 2.5-meter telescope aboard a modified Boeing 747SP airplane. So if astronomers want to observe that distant light, they have to get creative.įor years, particularly between the retirement of the Spitzer Space Telescope and the launch of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) was that creative solution. It’s absorbed along the way by plentiful water in Earth’s atmosphere. Most infrared light from outer space never reaches the ground.
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