NASA’s SOFIA telescope-plane studies neighboring galaxy from Chile

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – On its first visit to South America, NASA’s SOFIA observatory plane made eight scientific flights in Chile to make observations of the Magellanic Clouds, which are only visible from the southern hemisphere; it was reported on March 31.

Equipped with a powerful telescope, computers, and scientific instruments and a crew of 20 people, including astronomers and engineers, the huge plane, a Boeing 747SP, landed last week at Santiago airport with the mission to observe the Universe.

The aerial observatory made eight flights over several hours at night to observe the Large Magellanic Cloud and the Small Magellanic Cloud, a kind of mini-galaxies part of the Milky Way.

“They are two galaxies that are the nearest galactic neighbors of our Milky Way. Both are gravitationally bound to the Milky Way and will eventually merge with our galaxy in several billion years,” said a NASA statement.

The plane was fitted out in 2009, and a year later, the SOFIA telescope made its first observation.

“There are many objects like the Magellanic Clouds that are only visible from the southern hemisphere, and that is why these flights must be made from Chile,” explained Ezequiel Treister, an astronomer at the Catholic University, who hosted the SOFIA (Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy) team.

Treister indicated that “the plane flies at night at an altitude of 12,000 to 13,000 meters, but with a hole in the fuselage”, through which the telescope, employing infrared light, observes the emission of dust or the emission of gas.

Once the light is received, it enters the instrument chamber where the images are recorded and then processed and analyzed in the computers, where they are studied for years.

“The telescope is constantly moving; it has to compensate for turbulence (…) The plane’s position allows the telescope to look at the sky; all that makes it unique, it makes it both a scientific and engineering challenge,” he added.

“The most famous discoveries SOFIA has made are the first molecule formed after the Big Bang. As recently as last year, we discovered water on the surface of the Moon,” said Ed Harmon, SOFIA mission operations manager.