J.D. Harrington
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-5241
j.d.harrington@nasa.gov
Nicholas A. Veronico / Huong Nguyen
Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif.
650-604-4589/650-604-4789
nveronico@sofia.usra.edu / huong.nguyen@nasa.gov
RELEASE: 12-122
NASA'S SOFIA FEATURED IN THE ASTROPHYSICAL JOURNAL SPECIAL EDITION
MOFFETT FIELD, Calif. -- The Astrophysical Journal, a leading
professional astronomy research publication, will issue a special
edition of its Letters volume on April 20 with papers about
observations made with NASA's Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared
Astronomy (SOFIA) airborne telescope.
SOFIA is a highly modified Boeing 747SP aircraft that carries a
telescope with a 100-inch (2.5-meter) diameter reflecting mirror that
conducts astronomy research not possible with ground-based
telescopes. By operating in the stratosphere at altitudes up to
45,000 feet, SOFIA can make observations above the water vapor in
Earth's lower atmosphere.
"This is really SOFIA's debut on the world scientific stage," said
Chris Davis, SOFIA program scientist at NASA Headquarters in
Washington. "World-class observatories such as the Hubble, Chandra
and Spitzer space telescopes had their Astrophysical Journal special
editions, and now SOFIA joins their prestigious ranks."
The eight SOFIA papers featured in the special edition cover diverse
research on topics including SOFIA's capabilities as a flying
observatory and its study of star formation in our galaxy and beyond.
"Studies of star and planet formation processes are one of SOFIA's
'sweet spots,'" said SOFIA Science Mission Director Erick Young.
"SOFIA's infrared instruments can see into the dense clouds where
stars and planets are forming and detect heat radiation from their
construction material. By getting above the Earth's atmospheric water
vapor layer that blocks most of the infrared band, SOFIA's telescope
can view the glow from forming stars at their strongest emission
wavelengths."
The infrared images analyzed in these papers were obtained with the
FORCAST (Faint Object Infrared Camera for the SOFIA Telescope)
instrument during SOFIA's first science observations in December
2010. Papers based on observations with SOFIA and the GREAT
spectrometer (German Receiver for Astronomy at THz Frequencies) will
be published in a May 2012 special volume of the European journal
Astronomy and Astrophysics.
SOFIA is a joint project of NASA and the German Aerospace Center and
is based and managed at NASA's Dryden Aircraft Operations Facility in
Palmdale, Calif. NASA's Ames Research Center at Moffett Field,
Calif., manages the SOFIA science and mission operations in
cooperation with the Universities Space Research Association,
headquartered in Columbia, Md., and the German SOFIA Institute at the
University of Stuttgart.
For more information about SOFIA, visit:
To view The Astrophysical Journal Letters containing the SOFIA papers,
visit:
http://iopscience.iop.org/2041-8205/749/2
-end-
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