The airborne telescope is one-of-a-kind

May 24, 2010 13:59 GMT  ·  By

Engineers and officials at the American space agency NASA and the German Aerospace Center (DLR) have every right to be excited these days. Their innovative telescope, the Stratospheric Observatory For Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) is getting ready to see first light, have just concluded a vast array of validation tests aimed at assessing its capabilities. Next in line of test flights is the Telescope Assembly Characterization and ‘First Light’ flight, which will basically see the airborne observatory take its first images of extraterrestrial stars and other objects.

The event could take place as soon as this week, NASA officials announce. They say that they can hardly wait to get the first infrared images of various objects. The reason why this particular telescope is so outstanding is because it's entirely fitted inside the hull of a heavily-modified Boeing 747 wide-body aircraft. This makes the observatory capable of an extraordinary feat – conduct scientific observations from places on the planet that are unsuitable for hosting a land-based telescope. These areas have skies that are very rich in targets of interest, but clouds generally prevent observations. Using SOFIA, experts would simply fly above the clouds, and conduct their science from there, Space reports.

The infrared instrument is also very fit for astronomical observations, as it sports a 2.5-meter (100-inch) mirror. Given the fact that the telescope is basically ready, engineering teams that produced the various components of the telescope are currently rushing to set up the final details. For example, the Cornell University team that developed the mid-infrared Faint Object Infrared Camera (FORECAST) flew all the way from New York to conduct final tests. The instrument, which is sensitive to the 5–40 micrometers portion of the electromagnetic spectrum, is one of the three primary tools aboard SOFIA.

The other two are the near-infrared camera FLITECAM (1-5 micrometers) and the far-infrared HAWC (40–300 micrometers). The reason why FORECAST is so important is because it can conduct infrared observations in a portion of the spectrum that is invisible to ground-based telescopes. Water vapors in our atmosphere are very efficient at absorbing it, and so objects emitting in those particular wavelengths cannot be detected even from the driest places on the planet.