NASA Logo

NTRS

NTRS - NASA Technical Reports Server

Back to Results
Exploring the Interstellar Medium with SOFIASOFIA, the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, is being developed to operate at wavelengths from 0.3 microns to 1.6 mm over a 20 year lifetime. Its 2.5 m effective diameter telescope will be diffraction limited (approximately 8.5 arc seconds FWHM at 100 microns) at wavelengths beyond about 5 microns. Its B747SP aircraft platform will allow coverage of the entire sky and enable observation of ephemeral events. Nine first-generation focal plane instruments are being built, and more will be added later. These attributes assure SOFIA a vital role in future studies of the interstellar medium (ISM), in addition to topics such as the solar system. SOFIA observers will explore the gamut of ISM topics: star formation; the Galactic Center; debris disks; recycling of materials through the stellar life cycle; the origin and evolution of biogenic materials; shock, photodissociation, and photoexcitation physics; gas and grain chemistry. Imaging, spectroscopy, and eventually polarimetry covering much of the infrared spectrum will all be part of SOFIA's arsenal in the attack on these and other important problems. The talk will describe the observatory, its status, its science instruments and anticipated program. SOFIA is a joint program of NASA in the U.S. and DLR in Germany. Broad participation by the international science community in SOFIA observations will be encouraged via annual proposal opportunities and user-friendly tools. Roughly 80% of the observing time will be granted by the U.S. and 20% by Germany. For further information, see http://sofia.arc.nasa.gov.
Document ID
20040152146
Acquisition Source
Ames Research Center
Document Type
Preprint (Draft being sent to journal)
Authors
Erickson, Edwin F.
(NASA Ames Research Center Moffett Field, CA, United States)
Date Acquired
August 22, 2013
Publication Date
January 1, 2004
Subject Category
Astronomy
Meeting Information
Meeting: The Dustry and Molecular Universe: A Prelude to ALMA and Herschel
Location: Paris
Country: France
Start Date: October 27, 2004
End Date: October 29, 2004
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Work of the US Gov. Public Use Permitted.

Available Downloads

There are no available downloads for this record.
No Preview Available