Why the best way to see the stars is from a Boeing 747
In short: Discover how NASA and the German Aerospace Center use a modified jumbo jet to peer through the clouds and capture infrared light that remains invisible from the ground.
Earth's lower atmosphere contains water vapor that obstructs much of the infrared radiation we need to study the cosmos. To bypass this obstacle, the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) flies at altitudes exceeding 12,000 meters.
As the world's only airborne telescope, SOFIA utilizes a high-speed imager and a far-infrared spectrometer to investigate the chemical makeup of deep space, the birth of stars, and the atmospheres of planets in our solar system.
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Sources
- Summary by Intellect · source: Science Bulletins: SOFIA—Stars and the Space Between
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