Flying Observatory SOFIA

The Stratosphere Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) is a German-American project to research the cosmos.

Goodbye SOFIA! – The flying observatory has found a new home. For eight and a half years, the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy SOFIA explored space and enabled numerous scientific discoveries. In January 2023, she has found a new permanent home: the Pima Air & Space Museum in Tucson, Arizona in the USA. The 2.7-meter-diameter primary mirror from the telescope will be transferred to the German Optical Museum (DOM) in Jena.

The University of Stuttgart is in charge of the scientific guidance of the mission, and it thereby underscores the international claim of Stuttgart aerospace science. With a 2.7 m telescope integrated into a modified Boeing 747 SP, astronomic observations are carried out in infrared and sub-millimeter wavelength ranges far above the interference of Earth’s atmosphere. The distance infrared spectrometer FIFI-LS of the University of Stuttgart enables scientists to observe stars and solar systems in creation. The project, which is comparable to a galactic expedition can already point to numerous scientific successes.

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