With the sliding door over its 17-ton infrared telescope wide open, NASA's Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy – or SOFIA – soars over California's snow-covered Southern Sierras on a test flight.
For information on how to participate in the Tele-Talks, please check the SOFIA Tele-Talk page.
For information on how to participate in the Tele-Talks, please check the SOFIA Tele-Talk page.
(a) Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Wide Angle Camera image of the southern limb of the Moon, oriented with the celestial pole at the top as appropriate for 2022 February 17, with lunar coordinate grid overlaid and an outline of the region observed with SOFIA (blue lines). (b) Color rendition of SOFIA water and continuum emission. The color image combines the 6 micron continuum surface brightness (green) and the 6 micron water feature strength (blue). The diagonal empty regions on the water image mask a partially transparent defect on the surface of the detector that leads to significantly higher noise. (c) The 6 µm continuum surface brightness in Jy/pixel. (d) The 6 micron integrated water band strength, W.
By Bill Reach and Joan Schmelz
For the first time, SOFIA has made a detailed map of water on the surface of the Moon. Comparison with the lunar landscape shows that the water emission is strongest on the shady sides of deep craters and high mountains. Researchers used observations taken on 2022 February 17 as part of a SOFIA Legacy project intended to explore how water is distributed across the lunar surface.
This schematic shows the layers of Earth’s atmosphere, from the troposphere to the thermosphere. SOFIA observes from within the stratosphere and studied the ratio of main oxygen to heavy oxygen in the mesosphere and lower thermosphere, up to an altitude of about 124 miles (200 kilometers.)
For information on how to participate in the Tele-Talks, please check the SOFIA Tele-Talk page.
For information on how to participate in the Tele-Talks, please check the SOFIA Tele-Talk page.
April 18-21, 2023
7:30-11:00 am Pacific Time
Registration is now open for SOFIA School 2023. This free virtual event is designed for anyone who considers using astronomical mid- and far-IR data in their scientific research. Through scientific, analysis and data reduction examples, paired with lectures on fundamental concepts, attendees will be introduced to the range of scientific information leveraged by such data, on a variety of sources. The school will focus on SOFIA data, but the content presented will be relevant to other mid-/far-IR data from balloon facilities or satellites. More information on the school website.