Airplane-borne IR observatory finally takes off
JUL 22, 2010
DOI: 10.1063/PT.5.024519
Nature : In 1996, NASA and its German counterpart the DLR agreed to build the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, an IR telescope mounted in a converted Boeing 747. Fourteen years later on 26 May, SOFIA’s 2.7-m telescope, which peers from a large door in the airplane’s fuselage, saw its first light. Nature‘s Eric Hand examines the long-delayed mission’s likely scientific payoff.
© 2010 American Institute of Physics
