Podcasts about stratospheric observatory

Led by Anicia Arredondo, researchers used the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) to investigate the metallic nature of the asteroid Psyche, believed to be rich in metals. SOFIA observed the entire surface of Psyche, using mid-infrared instruments to analyze its emissivity and porosity. The results confirmed that Psyche is a metallic body with some differences between the northern and southern poles. This study paves the way for NASA's mission to Psyche, launching in October 2023, promising insights into planetary cores and planet formation. Psyche's size and potential for differentiation make it a significant subject for understanding Earth-like planets. Join Anicia and SETI Institute senior astronomer Franck Marchis to learn more! (Recorded live19 October 2023.)

On The Space Show for Wednesday, 19 April 2023: Update on the imminent SpaceX fully integrated Starship and Super Heavy orbital flight test from Starbase, Texas. The launch of JUICE - the Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer. No Phosphine on Venus, according to SOFIA (the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy). Study using three decades old Magellan data finds Venus' ‘squishy' outer shell may be resurfacing the planet. NASA's Ingenuity Mars helicopter has completed it's 50th flight above the surface of the Red Planet. Plans for future investigations of the Perseverance Mars rover. In Europe, an independent advisory group has reported to the European Space Agency calling for the Agency to significantly increase its autonomy in human and robotic space exploration. In the report, “Revolution Space: Europe's Mission for Space Exploration”, the group argues that human space exploration is undergoing a revolution, which Europe cannot afford to miss. Rocket Lab set to launch NASA's TROPICS constellation to study cyclone/hurricane formation, evolution and dissipation. A description of the Tropospheric Emissions Monitoring of Pollution, or TEMPO instrument and its mission.

The Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) made its last flight on Sept. 30, 2022. Astronomer Margaret Meixner was onboard as the huge telescope built into a 747 aircraft ended its observations of the universe. Margaret joined us earlier that day to celebrate the great successes of this unique instrument and its team. You may win a signed CD copy of “The Moons Symphony” in the new What's Up space trivia contest! There's more to discover at https://www.planetary.org/planetary-radio/2022-sofia-margaret-meixnerSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We're saying farewell to the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (aka SOFIA) this month. The mission, which was partially based in Christchurch, wraps up after a decade of observing comets, stars, planets, and the moon. In July 2017, Alison Ballance boarded the Boeing 747 with a flying telescope for one of its research flights.

We're saying farewell to the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (aka SOFIA) this month. The mission, which was partially based in Christchurch, wraps up after a decade of observing comets, stars, planets, and the moon. In July 2017, Alison Ballance boarded the Boeing 747 with a flying telescope for one of its research flights.

Space lovers are farewelling an airborne observatory as it makes its final visit to Christchurch after years of research trips. SOFIA - short for Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy - is a 747 adjusted to fit a 2.7m telescope. For 10 years the aircraft has helped scientists collect data that would be missed by a telescope on the ground - but it has being shut down as new technology supersedes it. Our reporter Tessa Guest and cameraman Nate McKinnon went to have a look.

My guest today is Dr. Margaret Meixner, the Director of Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) Science Mission Operations. Previous to this role, Dr. Meixner was a Distinguished Astronomer at the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) and a Project Scientist at James Webb Space Telescope. https://www.sofia.usra.edu/about-sofia/science-team/margaret-meixner

My guest today is Dr. Margaret Meixner, the Director of Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) Science Mission Operations. Previous to this role, Dr. Meixner was a Distinguished Astronomer at the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) and a Project Scientist at James Webb Space Telescope. https://www.sofia.usra.edu/about-sofia/science-team/margaret-meixner

A teaming arrangement between NASA and Germany's Aerospace Center has started focusing on the earth's mesophere and lower thermosphere, where scientists say they have a lot to learn. They're using an instrument known as the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, or SOFIA. With how the joint venture works and what each country brings to it, the Federal Drive turned to the director of the SOFIA science mission operations, Dr. Margaret Meixner.

SOFIA Project Scientist Naseem Rangwala discusses the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy.

SOFIA Project Scientist Naseem Rangwala discusses the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy.

SOFIA Project Scientist Naseem Rangwala discusses the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy.

SOFIA Project Scientist Naseem Rangwala discusses the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy.

Elizabeth “Liz” Ruth is a research pilot at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base in California. She flies the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA), a modified Boeing 747SP with the world’s largest airborne astronomical observatory. Prior to joining Armstrong’s flight operations in 2016, Ruth was a legislative assistant for San Luis Obispo County in California from 2013 to 2015. In Ruth’s earlier career, she was a United Airlines flight officer on the B737-300, B757, B767 and B777 aircraft. She also worked for the company as a simulator and academic instructor for the B737-300 and was on the development team for the B737-300 Fleet Computer Based Training and Advanced Qualification Training Program. Before joining United, Ruth was an active duty pilot of the U.S. Air Force, where she served as instructor pilot, check pilot and aircraft commander for the T-38 and T-43 from 1981 to1989. She concluded her military career with the rank of captain. Ruth earned a Bachelor of Science in business administration from the University of Southern California, Los Angeles. She also earned a Master of Aeronautical Science from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University where she attended classes at McClellan Air Force Base in Sacramento, California.

Subscribe to the YouTube Channel here - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCggl8-aPBDo7wXJQ43TiluA Join the Episode after party on Discord! Link: https://discord.gg/ZzJSrGP SpaceX executive pitches Starship for space debris cleanup Link: https://spaceflightnow.com/2020/10/27/spacex-executive-pitches-starship-for-space-debris-cleanup/ SpaceX could use its Starship vehicles to clear out space debris in Earth orbit, alongside the program's more publicized purpose of ferrying people and cargo to the moon and Mars, a company executive said. The Starship is the upper stage of a giant new rocket SpaceX is developing to boost more than 100 metric tons, or more than 220,000 pounds, of payloads into low Earth orbit. With in-orbit refueling, the Starship's methane-fed engines could propel more than 100 metric tons of cargo to the moon, Mars, and other deep space destinations, according to SpaceX. SpaceX is designing the Starship and its massive booster rocket — named the Super Heavy — to be fully reusable. Both vehicles will come back to Earth for vertical landings to be turned around for more missions. “Not only will it decrease the costs of access to space, it's the vehicle that would transport people from Earth to Mars,” Shotwell said in an interview with Time's technology columnist Patrick Lucas Austin. “But it also has the capability of taking cargo and crew at the same time, and so it's quite possible that we could leverage Starship to go to some of these dead rocket bodies — other people's rocket's, of course — basically pick up some of this junk in outer space.” In the hunt for Planet Nine, astronomers eye a new search technique for the elusive world Link: https://www.space.com/planet-nine-search-observing-technique Finding Planet Nine may require looking at telescope images in a different light. Astronomers are vetting a "shifting and stacking" technique that could aid the hunt for the putative world, which some researchers think lurks undiscovered in the far outer system, way beyond Pluto's orbit. The strategy involves shifting space-telescope images along sets of possible orbital paths, then stacking the photos together to combine their light. The technique has already been used to discover some moons in our solar system, and it could potentially spot Planet Nine — also known as Planet X, Giant Planet Five or Planet Next — and other extremely farflung objects, researchers said. Astronomers are vetting a "shifting and stacking" technique that could aid the hunt for the putative world, which some researchers think lurks undiscovered in the far outer system, way beyond Pluto's orbit. The strategy involves shifting space-telescope images along sets of possible orbital paths, then stacking the photos together to combine their light. The technique has already been used to discover some moons in our solar system, and it could potentially spot Planet Nine — also known as Planet X, Giant Planet Five or Planet Next — and other extremely farflung objects, researchers said. "You really can't see them without using this kind of method," Malena Rice, an astronomy Ph.D. student at Yale University in Connecticut, said in a statement. "If Planet Nine is out there, it's going to be incredibly dim." In a test, the researchers found the faint signals of three known trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs) — small bodies that circle the sun beyond Neptune's orbit — in shifted and stacked TESS images. The scientists then conducted a blind search of two distant patches of sky, turning up 17 new TNO candidates. "If even one of these candidate objects is real, it would help us to understand the dynamics of the outer solar system and the likely properties of Planet Nine," Rice said. "It's compelling new information." NASA's SOFIA Discovers Water on Sunlit Surface of Moon Link: https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-s-sofia-discovers-water-on-sunlit-surface-of-moon/ NASA's Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) has confirmed, for the first time, water on the sunlit surface of the Moon. This discovery indicates that water may be distributed across the lunar surface, and not limited to cold, shadowed places. “We had indications that H2O – the familiar water we know – might be present on the sunlit side of the Moon,” said Paul Hertz, director of the Astrophysics Division in the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “Now we know it is there. This discovery challenges our understanding of the lunar surface and raises intriguing questions about resources relevant for deep space exploration.” “Prior to the SOFIA observations, we knew there was some kind of hydration,” said Casey Honniball, the lead author who published the results from her graduate thesis work at the University of Hawaii at Mānoa in Honolulu. “But we didn't know how much, if any, was actually water molecules – like we drink every day – or something more like drain cleaner.” “Without a thick atmosphere, water on the sunlit lunar surface should just be lost to space,” said Honniball, who is now a postdoctoral fellow at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “Yet somehow we're seeing it. Something is generating the water, and something must be trapping it there.” SOFIA's follow-up flights will look for water in additional sunlit locations and during different lunar phases to learn more about how the water is produced, stored, and moved across the Moon. The data will add to the work of future Moon missions, such as NASA's Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER), to create the first water resource maps of the Moon for future human space exploration. The Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) is an 80/20 joint project of NASA and the German Aerospace Center (DLR)[1] to construct and maintain an airborne observatory. SOFIA is based on a Boeing 747SP wide-body aircraft that has been modified to include a large door in the aft fuselage that can be opened in flight to allow a 2.5 m (8.2 ft) diameter reflecting telescope access to the sky The Nearest Stars to Earth (Infographic) Link: https://www.space.com/18964-the-nearest-stars-to-earth-infographic.html The nearest stars to Earth are in the Alpha Centauri triple-star system, about 4.37 light-years away. One of these stars, Proxima Centauri, is slightly closer, at 4.24 light-years. Of all the stars closer than 15 light-years, only two are spectral type G, similar to our sun: Alpha Centauri A and Tau Ceti. The majority are M-type red dwarf stars. Only nine of the stars in this area are bright enough to be seen by the naked human eye from Earth. These brightest stars include Alpha Centauri A and B, Sirius A, Epsilon Eridani, Procyon, 61 Cygni A and B, Epsilon Indi A and Tau Ceti. Sirius A is the brightest star in Earth's night sky, due to its intrinsic brightness and its proximity to us. Sirius B, a white dwarf star, is smaller than Earth but has a mass 98 percent that of our sun. In late 2012, astronomers discovered that Tau Ceti may host five planets including one within the star's habitable zone. Tau Ceti is the nearest single G-type star like our sun (although the Alpha Centauri triple-star system also hosts a G-type star and is much closer). The masses of Tau Ceti's planets range from between two and six times the mass of Earth. 53 Stars 16 Light years or less! Show Stuff Join the episode after party on Discord! Link: https://discord.gg/ZzJSrGP The Dark Horde Podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/show/the-dark-horde The Dark Horde, LLC – http://www.thedarkhorde.com Twitter @DarkHorde or https://twitter.com/HordeDark Support the podcast and shop @ http://shopthedarkhorde.com UBR Truth Seekers Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/216706068856746 UFO Buster Radio: https://www.facebook.com/UFOBusterRadio YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCggl8-aPBDo7wXJQ43TiluA To contact Manny: manny@ufobusterradio.com, or on Twitter @ufobusterradio Call the show anytime at (972) 290-1329 and leave us a message with your point of view, UFO sighting, and ghostly experiences or join the discussion on www.ufobusterradio.com Mail can be sent to: UFO Buster Radio Network PO BOX 769905 San Antonio TX 78245 For Skype Users: bosscrawler

Subscribe to the YouTube Channel here - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCggl8-aPBDo7wXJQ43TiluA Join the Episode after party on Discord! Link: https://discord.gg/ZzJSrGP SpaceX executive pitches Starship for space debris cleanup Link: https://spaceflightnow.com/2020/10/27/spacex-executive-pitches-starship-for-space-debris-cleanup/ SpaceX could use its Starship vehicles to clear out space debris in Earth orbit, alongside the program's more publicized purpose of ferrying people and cargo to the moon and Mars, a company executive said. The Starship is the upper stage of a giant new rocket SpaceX is developing to boost more than 100 metric tons, or more than 220,000 pounds, of payloads into low Earth orbit. With in-orbit refueling, the Starship's methane-fed engines could propel more than 100 metric tons of cargo to the moon, Mars, and other deep space destinations, according to SpaceX. SpaceX is designing the Starship and its massive booster rocket — named the Super Heavy — to be fully reusable. Both vehicles will come back to Earth for vertical landings to be turned around for more missions. “Not only will it decrease the costs of access to space, it's the vehicle that would transport people from Earth to Mars,” Shotwell said in an interview with Time's technology columnist Patrick Lucas Austin. “But it also has the capability of taking cargo and crew at the same time, and so it's quite possible that we could leverage Starship to go to some of these dead rocket bodies — other people's rocket's, of course — basically pick up some of this junk in outer space.” In the hunt for Planet Nine, astronomers eye a new search technique for the elusive world Link: https://www.space.com/planet-nine-search-observing-technique Finding Planet Nine may require looking at telescope images in a different light. Astronomers are vetting a "shifting and stacking" technique that could aid the hunt for the putative world, which some researchers think lurks undiscovered in the far outer system, way beyond Pluto's orbit. The strategy involves shifting space-telescope images along sets of possible orbital paths, then stacking the photos together to combine their light. The technique has already been used to discover some moons in our solar system, and it could potentially spot Planet Nine — also known as Planet X, Giant Planet Five or Planet Next — and other extremely farflung objects, researchers said. Astronomers are vetting a "shifting and stacking" technique that could aid the hunt for the putative world, which some researchers think lurks undiscovered in the far outer system, way beyond Pluto's orbit. The strategy involves shifting space-telescope images along sets of possible orbital paths, then stacking the photos together to combine their light. The technique has already been used to discover some moons in our solar system, and it could potentially spot Planet Nine — also known as Planet X, Giant Planet Five or Planet Next — and other extremely farflung objects, researchers said. "You really can't see them without using this kind of method," Malena Rice, an astronomy Ph.D. student at Yale University in Connecticut, said in a statement. "If Planet Nine is out there, it's going to be incredibly dim." In a test, the researchers found the faint signals of three known trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs) — small bodies that circle the sun beyond Neptune's orbit — in shifted and stacked TESS images. The scientists then conducted a blind search of two distant patches of sky, turning up 17 new TNO candidates. "If even one of these candidate objects is real, it would help us to understand the dynamics of the outer solar system and the likely properties of Planet Nine," Rice said. "It's compelling new information." NASA's SOFIA Discovers Water on Sunlit Surface of Moon Link: https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-s-sofia-discovers-water-on-sunlit-surface-of-moon/ NASA's Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) has confirmed, for the first time, water on the sunlit surface of the Moon. This discovery indicates that water may be distributed across the lunar surface, and not limited to cold, shadowed places. “We had indications that H2O – the familiar water we know – might be present on the sunlit side of the Moon,” said Paul Hertz, director of the Astrophysics Division in the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “Now we know it is there. This discovery challenges our understanding of the lunar surface and raises intriguing questions about resources relevant for deep space exploration.” “Prior to the SOFIA observations, we knew there was some kind of hydration,” said Casey Honniball, the lead author who published the results from her graduate thesis work at the University of Hawaii at Mānoa in Honolulu. “But we didn't know how much, if any, was actually water molecules – like we drink every day – or something more like drain cleaner.” “Without a thick atmosphere, water on the sunlit lunar surface should just be lost to space,” said Honniball, who is now a postdoctoral fellow at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “Yet somehow we're seeing it. Something is generating the water, and something must be trapping it there.” SOFIA's follow-up flights will look for water in additional sunlit locations and during different lunar phases to learn more about how the water is produced, stored, and moved across the Moon. The data will add to the work of future Moon missions, such as NASA's Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER), to create the first water resource maps of the Moon for future human space exploration. The Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) is an 80/20 joint project of NASA and the German Aerospace Center (DLR)[1] to construct and maintain an airborne observatory. SOFIA is based on a Boeing 747SP wide-body aircraft that has been modified to include a large door in the aft fuselage that can be opened in flight to allow a 2.5 m (8.2 ft) diameter reflecting telescope access to the sky The Nearest Stars to Earth (Infographic) Link: https://www.space.com/18964-the-nearest-stars-to-earth-infographic.html The nearest stars to Earth are in the Alpha Centauri triple-star system, about 4.37 light-years away. One of these stars, Proxima Centauri, is slightly closer, at 4.24 light-years. Of all the stars closer than 15 light-years, only two are spectral type G, similar to our sun: Alpha Centauri A and Tau Ceti. The majority are M-type red dwarf stars. Only nine of the stars in this area are bright enough to be seen by the naked human eye from Earth. These brightest stars include Alpha Centauri A and B, Sirius A, Epsilon Eridani, Procyon, 61 Cygni A and B, Epsilon Indi A and Tau Ceti. Sirius A is the brightest star in Earth's night sky, due to its intrinsic brightness and its proximity to us. Sirius B, a white dwarf star, is smaller than Earth but has a mass 98 percent that of our sun. In late 2012, astronomers discovered that Tau Ceti may host five planets including one within the star's habitable zone. Tau Ceti is the nearest single G-type star like our sun (although the Alpha Centauri triple-star system also hosts a G-type star and is much closer). The masses of Tau Ceti's planets range from between two and six times the mass of Earth. 53 Stars 16 Light years or less! Show Stuff Join the episode after party on Discord! Link: https://discord.gg/ZzJSrGP The Dark Horde Podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/show/the-dark-horde The Dark Horde, LLC – http://www.thedarkhorde.com Twitter @DarkHorde or https://twitter.com/HordeDark Support the podcast and shop @ http://shopthedarkhorde.com UBR Truth Seekers Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/216706068856746 UFO Buster Radio: https://www.facebook.com/UFOBusterRadio YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCggl8-aPBDo7wXJQ43TiluA To contact Manny: manny@ufobusterradio.com, or on Twitter @ufobusterradio Call the show anytime at (972) 290-1329 and leave us a message with your point of view, UFO sighting, and ghostly experiences or join the discussion on www.ufobusterradio.com Mail can be sent to: UFO Buster Radio Network PO BOX 769905 San Antonio TX 78245 For Skype Users: bosscrawler

In a recently published paper in the journal Nature Astronomy, SOFIA (the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy) has confirmed that water exists in sunny craters on the moon from data they gathered from an initial test run back in August 2018 where astronomers were curious if they could aim the 2.7-meter infrared telescope (that flies inside a modified Boeing 747SP aircraft and travels up to 45,000 ft up in the atmosphere) at the moon instead of the usual dim objects they observe. The SOFIA telescope has to be transported above 99% of water vapor in Earth's atmosphere because water vapor absorbs infrared radiation and makes ground-based infrared astronomy impossible. All the colors that we see are contained within a small region termed “visible light” on a much larger spectrum referred to as the electromagnetic spectrum. Wavelength, which is a fundamental characteristic of light on the EM spectrum, is inversely proportional to energy. Thus, more energetic phenomena in the universe produce light with small wavelengths (UV light, X-rays, and gamma rays) whereas less energetic phenomena emit light with larger wavelengths (infrared, microwaves, and radio waves). Infrared light is typically produced from thermal processes, so it is a wavelength range best suited for looking at warm galactic dust, "hot Jupiters", and searching for signatures of water in the atmosphere of exoplanets. To their surprise, SOFIA was able to detect water signatures at a 6.1 micron wavelength using the Faint Object infraRed CAmera for the SOFIA Telescope (FORCAST) instrument while aimed at the sunny Clavius Crater, a large crater visible from Earth in the moon's southern hemisphere. This has big implications for the planning of future missions to return to the moon such as NASA's Artemis program, which hopes to put a woman and man on the moon again by 2024.

The OnTrack Podcast welcomes Zaheer Ali, manager of safety, quality, and software product assurance for NASA’s Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA). Zaheer is a research physicist specializing in electron transport and nuclear radiation detection and has a background as a MEMS engineer. He co-founded the National Center for Nuclear Security while working at the US Department of Energy’s Nevada Test Site. Zaheer shares his wealth of experience with our listeners and offers some sage advice to Electrical Engineers as we move toward a more modular, degradable, interconnected world. Click here, to watch the video. Show Highlights Zaheer Abbas Ali is a research physicist by education and training, specializing in electron transport and nuclear radiation detection, but while pursuing his education, he also took a tremendous number of Electrical and Nuclear Engineering classes.  Zaheer has over 10,000 hours "in the fab" and spent part of his career consulting as a micro/nano device (MEMS) engineer. While working for the US Department of Energy’s Nevada Test Site, Zaheer co-founded the National Center for Nuclear Security. Zaheer also worked a two year assignment as Principal Investigator and Shot Director at the Laboratory for Laser Energetics of the University of Rochester.  Zaheer currently works as the Product Assurance Manager for SOFIA, the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, a project made possible through NASA’s partnership with the German Aerospace Center (also known as Deutsches Zentrum für Luft, or DLR).  We know what SOFIA stands for, but what is SOFIA exactly?SOFIA is a modified Boeing 747SP aircraft which carries a reflecting telescope into the stratosphere at 38,000-45,000 feet, putting is above the vast majority of our planet’s infrared-blocking atmosphere. This provides a means for astronomers to study our skies in ways that are simply not possible using ground-based telescopes.  SOFIA’s  ability to fly above the troposphere, gives it access to a vew which is unobstructed by water and aerosols, so transmission is 99.99%! Zaheer also works with USRA (University Space Research Association), the subcontractor to NASA AMES Research Center, which is located in Mountain View, California. At DesignCon, Zaheer’s discussion focused on his colleague’s work on SOFIA, in a talk titled ‘Microships in Space: How Device Design Enables Amazing Astronomy’. Zaheer also served on a panel at DesignCon, discussing ‘How Device Design can Drive Progress in Industry 4.0’. Zaheer’s advice to EEs is to, moving forward, focus on modularity and upgradeability on the hardware side—these are critical for the longevity of systems and capabilities, and he believes demand for these features from commercial and consumer spaces will only increase as time goes on.  Zaheer also notes the additional trend in which the number of IoT devices an average person interacts with on a daily basis will increase by an order of magnitude over the next 5-10 years, placing a huge emphasis on board and device design for IoT. Resources: Zaheer Linkedinwww.SOFIA.usra.eduHelium Hydride SOFIASOFIA reveals new view of Milky Waywww.AixiaGlobal.comwww.llnl.govwww.dhs.govNASA SpinoffArticle featuring Orbit Fab’s Space Gas StationIn God we trust, Everyone else, bring data.   See What's New in Altium Designer

Recently, scientists have found the universe’s first type of molecule. From research and studies done by scientists show that about 100,000 years after the big bang, helium, and hydrogen mixed. They believe this created a molecule called helium hydride. This was observed by SOFIA or NASA’s Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy. NASA found this molecule in a planetary nebula and an old star. This was proof that helium hydride existed. The reason that the molecule is made up of helium and hydrogen is that they were the main atoms back then. Since this molecule formed, it cooled down the universe and started the cycle of creating stars. It also was very important for everything that happened after that.

On this mission, SOFIA is setting out to study Titan, Saturn’s biggest moon, by flying into the faint shadow that it casts as it blocks the light from a faraway star. It’s a phenomenon called an occultation, and if the mission succeeds, it will reveal new details about Titan’s atmosphere. SOFIA is a very unusual observatory. It is a 747 aircraft with a hatch in the side, which opens in flight to reveal a large, custom-built telescope – carefully engineered to work inside a moving jet plane. Its full name is the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, and it’s a joint project of Nasa and the German space agency, DLR. The catch? That shadow is moving across the earth at 22 kilometres per second. Join Dr Jonathan Webb from the ABC in Australia for episode one of The Chase - a special four-part series about science on the run. (Photo: SOFIA is a heavily modified 747SP which was acquired by Nasa in the mid-1990s after spending 20 years as a passenger jet. (Credit: Wayne Williams)

A conversation with James De Buizer, the science planning and instrument support manager for the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy or SOFIA.

A conversation with Alan Rhodes, instrument development manager for the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy at NASA’s Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley, and Harvey Moseley a senior astrophysicist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

A rerun of a conversation with Kimberly Ennico Smith, project scientist for SOFIA, the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, at NASA’s Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley.

A conversation about NASA’s Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) and the Echelon-Cross-Echelle Spectrograph (EXES) science instrument with Matthew Richter, Principle Investigator, and Edward Montiel, Postdoctoral Scholar.

A conversation with Pamela Marcum, Project Scientist on the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy project, also known as SOFIA.

Planetary Radio returns to SOFIA, the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, but this time we fly in the giant 747 turned telescope platform. It was a night to remember.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

By sending an infrared telescope to altitudes of 12,000 meters (40,000 feet) and higher, NASA and the German Aerospace Center (DLR) conduct astronomical research that would be impossible using telescopes based on Earth. The Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy—SOFIA—is the only airborne telescope in the world. Infrared imaging of stars and planets is difficult from ground-based observatories, because water vapor in Earth’s lower atmosphere blocks most infrared radiation. SOFIA operates from a modified Boeing 747, soaring high above occluding vapor to capture infrared emissions from distant galaxies. Using instruments that include a high-speed imager and a sensitive far-infrared spectrometer, SOFIA will provide insights into distant star formation, the chemical composition of deep space, and the atmospheres of planets within our own solar system.

On this episode, we talk about STS-133 tanking test and rollback to the VAB. The launch of Soyuz TMA-20 with Expedition 26 crew members Dmitry Kondratyev, Catherine Coleman and Paolo Nespoli. We kick around some ideas wondering about the loss of communications from the mission control center outside of Moscow to both the Soyuz and the ISS. Then we reminisce about @NanoSailD :( Moving on to another bit of bad news we cover the failure of the JAXA Venus Climate Orbiter "AKATSUKI" (Planet-C) to enter orbit around Venus. Ending on a high note, NASA's Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy or SOFIA completed its' first of three science missions. AKATSUKI's first shots of Venus: http://www.isas.jaxa.jp/e/topics/2010/1210.shtml Bill Nye the Science Guy visits NASA's Dryden Aircraft Operations Facility in Palmdale, CA home to SOFIA: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/SOFIA/bill_nye_visits_daof.html Late news: NASA Hosts Planet-Finding Tweetup in California's Silicone Valley. For Information about the #NASATweetup visit: http://www.nasa.gov/tweetup Hosts this week: Sawyer Rosenstein, Gene Mikulka and Mark Ratterman Show Recorded - 12/19/2010

This isn't your father's Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, it's NASA Dryden's SOFIA and Ikhana projects... plus, special guests.

This isn't your father's Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, it's NASA Dryden's SOFIA and Ikhana projects... plus, special guests.