Departmental Colloquium
- Title
- The Stratospheric Observatory For Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA): Studying the Universe while Traveling at Mach 0.85
- Guest Speaker
- Dr. James De Buizer
- Guest Affiliation
- Stratospheric Observatory For Infrared Astronomy, NASA Ames Research Center
- Host
- Prof. Inseok Song
- When
- Thursday, March 2, 2017 3:30 pm - 4:30 pm
- Location
- Physics Auditorium (202)
- Details
- SOFIA is an airborne observatory that consists of a 2.7m telescope mounted in a heavily modified Boeing 747 aircraft. Flying at altitudes up to 45000 feet, SOFIA can get above enough of the atmosphere to open up a broad swath of infrared wavelengths for scientific investigation which are completely unobservable from the ground. SOFIA has a large suite of science instruments covering a broad range of wavelengths and spectral resolutions, which make the observatory capable of performing a huge breadth of astronomical science from the optical to far-infrared. SOFIA is just beginning its 5th annual observing cycle, and has already produced a host of interesting science results. In this talk, I will discuss what makes this such a unique observatory in both form and function, and will highlight some of the more interesting science results obtained so far.