SOFIA Stratospheric Observatory For Infrared Astronomy

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SOFIAStratospheric Observatory For Infrared
Astronomy

• Jon Morse / Ray Taylor
• NASA Program Executive

May 11, 2007
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Outline of Material

• Overview of SOFIA
• Progress to Date
• Science
• Operations Plans
• Schedule

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OVERVIEW
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Overview of SOFIA

• SOFIA is 2.5 m telescope in a modified B747-SP
  aircraft
• Optical-mm performance
• Obscured IR (30-300 ?m) most important
• Operating altitude
• 39,000 to 45,000 feet (12 to 14 km)
• Above gt 99 of obscuring water vapor
• Joint Program between the US (80) and Germany
  (20)
• First Light Science 2009 (NASA, DLR, USRA, DSI)
• Designed for 20 year lifetime
• Deployments
• Ramp up to goal of 120 flights per year of 8 to
  10 Hours
• Build on KAO Heritage
• Science flights to originate from NASA Dryden
  Flight Research Center (DFRC)
• DFRC is where many other NASA research aircraft
  are located
• Science Center is located at NASA Ames Research
  Center

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PROGRESS TO DATE
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Telescope Installed
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Main Deck, Looking Aft at Instrument
Interface Orange Color is Flight Test
Instrumentation Telescope Pointing Control
Electronics to the Left
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Instrument Interface Blue is DLR Supplied
Equipment White is New Pressure Bulkhead
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First Flight (April 2007)Waco, TX
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SOFIAs Instrument Complement

• As an airborne mission, SOFIA supports a unique,
  expandable instrument suite
• SOFIA covers the full IR range with imagers and
  low, moderate, and high resolution spectrographs
• 4 instruments at Initial Operations 9
  instruments at Final Operations.
• SOFIA can take fully advantage of improvements in
  instrument technology
• Both Facility and PI Instruments
• Germany is supplying two of the generation
  instruments (GREAT FIFI-LS)

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Three of Seven U.S. InstrumentsOne of Two German
Instruments
Working/complete HIPO instrument in Waco on
SOFIA during Aug 2004
Working/complete FLITECAM instrument at Lick in
2004/5
Working FORCAST instrument at Palomar in 2005
Successful lab demonstration of GREAT in July 2005
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First Light Tracking lt0.8 arcsec rms from ground
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SCIENCE
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Science Capabilities

• Because of large aperture and better detectors,
  sensitivity for imaging and spectroscopy similar
  to the space observatory ISO
• 8x8 arcmin Field of View allows use of very large
  detector arrays
• Image size is diffraction-limited beyond 25 µm,
  making it 3 times sharper than the space
  observatory Spitzer at these wavelengths

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Astrochemistry

• Most molecular lines in IR or submillimeter
• Need high spectral resolution throughout IR and
  submillimeter
• As sensitive as CSO, but complete wavelength
  range is accessible (ie. H2, C2H2,CH4 only in IR)
• Light molecules Hydrogen, water, other hydrides
  in IR and submillimeter
• HD at 112 microns
• The fullerene, C60, has 4 IR lines in SOFIAs
  bands

CSO FTS Spectrum of ORION OMC1
Serabyn and Weisstein 1995
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Occultation astronomy with SOFIA
SOFIA will measure stellar occultations
Pluto occultation lightcurve observed on the KAO
(1984) probes the atmosphere

• SOFIA can fly anywhere on the Earth, allowing
  it to position itself under the shadow of an
  occulting object
• Occultation studies with SOFIA will probe the
  sizes, atmospheres, and possible satellites of
  Kuiper belt objects and newly discovered
  planet-like objects in the outer Solar system.
  The unique mobility of SOFIA opens up some
  hundred events per year for study compared to a
  handful for a fixed observatory.
• SOFIAs mobility also enables study of comets,
  supernovae and other serendipitous objects

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Feeding the Black Hole in the Center of the Galaxy
One of the major discoveries of the KAO was a
ring of dust and gas orbiting the very center of
the Galaxy
Astronomers at ESO and Keck detected fast moving
stars revealing a 4 x 106 solar mass black hole
at the Galactic Center

• The ring of dust and gas will fall into the black
  hole
• SOFIAs angular resolution and spectrometers will
  tell us
• How much matter gets fed into the black hole?
• How much energy is released?
• What is the relationship to high energy active
  galactic nuclei?

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Evolution of the Universe
SOFIA will study the deuterium abundance in the
galaxy, investigating the evolution of the
universe
Atmospheric transmission around the HD line at
40,000 feet
Deuterium in the universe is created in the Big
Bang and the primordial deuterium abundance
provides the best constraints on the mass density
of baryons in the universe. However, this Big
Bang record is subsequently modified by stellar
nuclear burning as material cycles from stars to
the interstellar medium and back to stars.

• Only the high resolution spectrograph on SOFIA
  can measure the deuterium abundance throughout
  our galaxy and answer
• What is the abundance of deuterium and how does
  it vary with the local star formation rate in
  galaxies?
• What does that tell us about the Big Bang and
  about the star formation history of galaxies?
• As pointed out by Bergin, Hollenbach and others,
  HD can also give the Molecular Hydrogen
  abundance.

NASA strategic sub-goal 3D.1 and 3D.2
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Operations Plans
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SOFIA Operations Drivers

• Frequent Flights Ramp Up to 960 science
  hours/year (2x KAO)
• World wide deployments especially to the Southern
  Hemisphere will be scheduled as required by
  science
• Both Facility and PI Instruments
• Facility Instruments Good tools, Data Pipelines
  and Archive - easy for non-IR astronomer to
  obtain good data (New for Airborne Astronomy with
  SOFIA)
• PI Instruments State of the art and innovative
• General Investigator program for both FSI and PI,
  with funded research
• Robust Instrument program to allow Observatory to
  reinvent itself every few years
• Unique Education and Public Outreach program

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SOFIA Science Operations

• SOFIA will be operated as an observatory open to
  the whole science community through peer review
• Ramp Up to 3 flights a week for 40 weeks per
  year
• On-going independent review of SOFIA science
  operations
• Gary Melnick, Chair
• Flights will be primarily out of Dryden (Edwards
  AFB) with occasional deployments to the southern
  hemisphere and other sites as needed
• Continuous access of science and mission staff to
  airplane
• Preflight instrument simulator facilities
  (testing and alignment) for mission preparation
• Instrument laboratories including cryogen
  facilities
• Rapid instrument exchange
• Science center will be at Ames
• Telescope time peer review
• Observing time schedule
• Flight planning
• Management of Instruments (Operations and
  Development)
• Science Data Archive(Facility Instruments Reduced
  data, PI raw data)
• Observing Support

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Schedule
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SOFIA Schedule (Major Milestones)

• Completed
• First Re-Flight April 07
• Upcoming
• Ferry Flight to DFRC June 07
• Initiate Closed Door Flight Tests Fall 08
• Complete Closed Door Flight Tests Summer
  08
• Install Door Drive (and other work) Fall/Winter
  08
• Initiate Open Door Flight Tests
  Spring 09
• First Science 09

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FY08 Budget Request
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Summary

• - Aircraft structural modifications complete
• - Telescope installed, several instruments
  tested on ground observatories
• - Several subsystems to be installed (e.g., door
  drive)
• - Completed first flight, leading to ferry
  flight in June 07 to DFRC
• - Full envelope flight testing (closed door) to
  start in Fall 08
• First science in 09
• SOFIA will be one of the primary facilities for
  far-IR and sub-millimeter astronomy for many years

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Back-up
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SOFIA and Spitzer

• SOFIA will become operational near the time that
  Spitzer runs out of cryogens. The science impact
  of not being contemporary is small Spitzer is a
  high sensitivity imaging and low resolution
  spectroscopy mission. SOFIA is a high spectral
  and high angular resolution mission
• As it now stands, the two observatories are very
  complementary and when Spitzer runs out of
  cryogens in early FY09, SOFIA will be the only
  observatory working in the 25 to 60 micron region
  for over 10 years Comets, Supernovae, Variable
  AGN, other discoveries.

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SOFIA and Herschel

• Herschel and SOFIA will now start at about the
  same time
• Joint calibration work is on going
• For the years of overlap, SOFIA will be only
  program
• with 25 to 60 micron capability
• with high resolution spectroscopy in the 60 to
  150 micron region
• When cryogens run out in Herschel in 2011 SOFIA
  will be only NASA mission in 25 to 600 micron
  region for many years
• Important follow-up
• Advanced instrumentation will give unique
  capabilities to SOFIA Polarization, Heterodyne
  Arrays, Heterodyne Spectroscopy at 28 microns
  (ground state of molecular hydrogen), and other
  interesting astrophysics lines
• Both missions are critically important and
  complementary

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SOFIA and JWST

• SOFIA is very complementary to JWST
• Before JWST is deployed and after Spitzer
  cryogens run out , SOFIA is only mission with 5
  to 8 micron capabilities
• important organic signatures
• After JWST is launched SOFIA is the only mission
  to give complementary observation beyond 28
  microns and high resolution spectroscopy in 5 to
  28 micron region

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Why SOFIA?

• Atmosphere above 99 of the water vapor
• IR transmission at 14 km gt80 from 1 to 800 mm
• Instrumentation wide variety, rapidly
  interchangeable, state-of-the art
• Mobility anywhere, anytime
• Long lifetime
• A near-space observatory that comes home after
  every flight

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NEXT CALL FOR NEW INSTRUMENTS

• The next call for instruments will be at first
  Science FY10
• There will be additional calls every 3 years
• There will be one new instrument or upgrade per
  year
• Approximate funding for new instruments 8 M/yr

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Infrared Space Observatories
0.3
1000
?
SAFIR
Frequency (THz)
Herschel
SOFIA
3
100

JWST
SPITZER
Wavelength (µm)
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10
1
2005
2010
2015
2020
2025
Ground-based Observatories
SOFIA provides temporal continuity and wide
spectral coverage, complementing other infrared
observatories.