SOFIA Stratospheric Observatory For Infrared Astronomy

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SOFIAStratospheric Observatory For Infrared
Astronomy

• E.E. Becklin
• SOFIA Chief Scientist

Astrobiology Workshop Jan 07, 2009
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Outline of Material

• Overview of SOFIA
• Progress to Date
• Astrobiology Science

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OVERVIEW
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Overview of SOFIA

• SOFIA is 2.5 m telescope in a modified B747SP
  aircraft
• Optical-mm performance
• Can obtain obscured IR (30-300 ?m), most
  important
• Joint Program between the US (80) and Germany
  (20)
• First Science 2009 (NASA, DLR, USRA, DSI)
• Designed for 20 year lifetime

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Overview of SOFIA (Cont)

• Operating altitude
• 39,000 to 45,000 feet (12 to 14 km)
• Above gt 99 of obscuring water vapor
• World Wide Deployments
• Ramp up to 1000 science hours per year
• Build on KAO Heritage with improvements (Facility
  Inst., Science Support)
• Science flights to originate from Palmdale
  .Aircraft operation by NASA Dryden Research
  Center (DFRC)
• Science Center is located at NASA Ames Research
  Center

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SOFIA The Observatory
open cavity (door not shown)
Educators work station
pressure bulkhead
scientist stations, telescope and instrument
control, etc.
TELESCOPE
scientific instrument (1 of 9)
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Why SOFIA?

• Infrared transmission in the Stratosphere very
  good Average gt80 from 1 to 1000 microns
• Instrumentation
• wide complement, interchangeable,
  state-of-art
• Mobility anywhere, anytime
• Long lifetime
• Outstanding platform to train future
  instrumentalist

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PROGRESS TO DATE
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Major Physical Installations Completed
Main Deck, Looking Aft at Instrument Interface
Telescope Installed
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SOFIA in the Palmdale Hanger
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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 to high resolution spectrographs
• 5 instruments at Initial Operations 9
  instruments at Full Operations.
• SOFIA will take fully advantage of improvements
  in instrument technology. There will be one new
  instrument or major upgrade each year.

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Four First Light Instruments
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Astrobiology 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 but with higher
  spectral and angular resolution.
• 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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Planetary Atmospheres
SOFIA will determine the Methane on Mars
The ground-based infrared spectrum of Mars is
dominated by broad lines in the Earth atmosphere.
A weak feature on the wing of the strong
terrestrial methane line may be the
Doppler-shifted methane line in the Mars
atmosphere. If true, the methane abundance is
high and may reflect biogenic activity. EXES
working at 7.6 microns in the Stratosphere will
be able to see directly the Doppler-shifted
methane line on Mars How much methane is on
Mars? Does it show biogenic activity? What are
the spatial and seasonal variability?
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How does the chemistry of disks vary with radius?

• High spectral resolution can determine where
  species reside in the disk
• small radii produce double-peaked, wider
  lines.
• Observing many sources at different ages in
  this way will trace the disk
• chemical evolution

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SOFIA is Well-matched to Astrochemistry
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SEARCHING FOR LARGE CARBON RINGS

• Do Large Carbon Rings form in the Interstellar
  Medium?
• Lab studies show that moderate resolution
  (R200-1000) spectroscopy from 5-200 ?m is a key
  to finding the large carbon molecules. (Large
  PAH) Discovery might be possible with an
  advanced instrument on SOFIA that works over the
  entire wavelength range.
• High resolution follow up using GREAT CASIMIR
  can resolve P-Q-R branch structure of lowest
  vibrational transitions

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Summary

• 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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Instrument/
PI
Instrument Type
Location
Dunham
HIPO/Lowell
.3-1.1 µm High Speed Occultation Camera
FLITECAM/
McLean
1-5.5 µm Infrared Camera and IR channel for HIPO
UCLA
FORCAST/
Faint Object Infrared Camera. Simultaneous Dual
channel
Herter
Cornell
observations (5-25 µm 25-40 µm)
Hi resolution (Rgt 106) Heterodyne Spectrometer

GREAT/MPI-
Güsten
3 bands - 1.6-1.9 THz 2.4-2.7 THz 4.7 THz
Bonn
FIFI-LS/
Dual Channel (42-110 µm 100-210 µm)

Poglitsch
MPI Garching
Grating Spectrometer
HAWC/
High Angular resolution 4 channel Camera _at_

Harper
UChicago
50 µm, 100 µm, 160 µm, 200 µm
CASIMIR/
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Hi resolution (R 106) Heterodyne Spectrometer

Zmuidzinas
Caltech
500-2000 GHz
EXES/UTexas
Lacy
5-28 µm-High resolution grating spectrometer
(Rgt100,000)
Fabry-Perot Spectrometer 100-655 µm (2000ltRlt104)
Moseley
SAFIRE/GSFC
Facility Instruments
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