SOFIA

Started by skalywag, 02/25/2010 06:58PM
Posted 02/25/2010 06:58PM Opening Post
SOFIA Expected To "Best" Other NASA Telescopes.
Popular Science (2/25, Wolverton) reports, "In the movies, opening the door on a plane at 45,000 feet is disastrous. But this spring it will be standard procedure on one 747-one carrying a telescope high enough to capture the cosmos better than ever before." The Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) telescope, according to the article, "will best the Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes by scanning the widest range of light of any scope, from ultraviolet to the far infrared." The article notes that "NASA's pilots will fly the plane, but the telescope's controls are integrated with autopilot to capture steady images."