SOFIASOFIA soars over the Sierra Nevada with its telescope door open during a test flight.NASA's new SOFIA observatory shared the ramp with its predecessor, the now-retired Kuiper Airborne Observatory, during open house at NASA...Congresswoman Anna G. Eshoo, left; SOFIA pilot Dean “Gucci” Neeley; Eugene Tu, center director at NASA’s Ames Research Center in...The Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) returns to NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center Building 703 on Aug. 11 after...SOFIA, the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, is a Boeing 747SP aircraft. Flying into the stratosphere at 38,000-45,000 feet puts...SOFIA studied this galaxy, NGC 1068, using far-infrared light to reveal facets of its magnetic fields that previous observations using...NASA’s Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, SOFIA, takes off from its base of operations at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center’s...SOFIA returns to NASA's Armstrong Flight Research Center building 703 in Palmdale, California.Technicians fill SOFIA’s instrument with liquid nitrogen and helium to keep the detectors cold. The now retired instrument was called...Technicians installing the tertiary mirror onto the SOFIA telescope.SOFIA’s flight crew prepare to takeoff from the U.S. Antarctic Program facility at Christchurch International Airport in Christchurch, New Zealand,...Scientists onboard SOFIA watch data come in from Pluto’s atmosphere as SOFIA flies into the shadow the dwarf planet cast...The Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) makes a low pass over NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in celebration of...SOFIA’s 9-foot mirror is lowered into the cavity and attached to a structure sitting on a thin layer of oil...Astronomers smile while looking at data from SOFIA’s telescope.SOFIA’s telescope mirror is seen as it appears during a science mission.James De Buizer, Senior Scientist at SOFIA Science Center, conducting observations onboard SOFIA facing the telescope’s Naysmith foci “eyepiece.”Dana Backamn explains SOFIA’s observations during a flight with Airborne Astronomy Ambassador educators Adriana Alvarez and Mariela Muñoz.The 2.5-meter infrared telescope in the rear fuselage of NASA's SOFIA flying observatory. SOFIA was retired from NASA in September...Composite image of the Swan Nebula. SOFIA detected the blue areas (20 microns) near the center, revealing gas as it’s...Biography for the only female research pilot for Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA), a modified Boeing 747SP with the...Biography of Michael Luallen who is a pilot for Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA), a modified Boeing 747SP with...Astronomers have discovered evidence for an extraordinarily long jet of particles coming from a supermassive black hole in the early...Biography of research pilot Andrew “Andy Barry” who flies the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, SOFIA, 747SP that carries the...SOFIA lifts off from Air Force Plant 42 in Palmdale, Calif., at sunset.The Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, SOFIA, departed for scheduled maintenance at Lufthansa Technik’s facility in Hamburg, Germany, on Sept....NASA’s telescope on an airplane, the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, or SOFIA, discovered magnetic fields in the Serpens South...Image of planetary nebula NGC 7027 also includes an illustration of helium hydride molecules.The powerful wind from the newly formed star at the heart of the Orion Nebula is creating the bubble and...
