Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) Mission EPO

NASA and the DLR, German Aerospace Center, are working together to create SOFIA — a Boeing 747SP aircraft modified by L-3 Communications Integrated Systems to accommodate a 2.5 meter reflecting telescope. SOFIA will be the largest airborne observatory in the world, and will make observations that are impossible for even the largest and highest of ground-based telescopes.

Overview

The SETI Institute in partnership with the Astronomical Society of the Pacific (ASP) are conducting the Education and Public Outreach Program for SOFIA - the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy.

SOFIA is NASA's next-generation airborne observatory. SOFIA will feature a 2.5 meter telescope mounted in a highly-modified Boeing 747SP. It will operate out of NASA's Ames Research Center in the San Francisco Bay Area, taking astronomers to an altitude of about 41,000 feet approximately four nights per week. From this vantage point above 99% of the infrared-absorbing atmospheric water vapor, SOFIA will help study many astronomical phenomena that are very difficult to study from ground-based observatories, including the nature of galactic black holes, the evolution of galaxies, the chemical composition of interstellar gas clouds, complex molecules in comets, and how stars and solar systems form.

The education and public outreach activities being developed by the the SETI Institute and the ASP include programs for K-12 teachers, informal educators, college teachers, journalists, and the general public. Approximately 200 educators per year will have the opportunity to fly aboard SOFIA, interacting with working astronomers and seeing the process of scientific research close up. Other education programs to be implemented after SOFIA operations begin include teacher/astronomer educational partnerships, classroom activities, interactive web-based activities, and live webcasts.

Official SOFIA website