THE SOFIA PROGRAM

摘要

SOFIA, the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, is a joint project of NASA in the U.S. and the DLR in Germany. It is designed to operate at altitudes from 12 to 14 km and wavelengths from 0.3 μm to 1.6 mm over a 20 year lifetime. Its 2.5 m effective diameter telescope will be diffraction limited at wavelengths beyond roughly 15 μm, for example producing a point-spread function ～8.5 arc seconds FWHM at 100 μm. SOFIA'S Boeing 747SP aircraft platform will allow coverage of the entire sky and enable unique observations of ephemeral events. Nine first-generation focal plane instruments are being built, with more to be added later. These attributes assure SOFIA a vital role in future studies of the interstellar medium and the solar system, as well as in other disciplines. Topics discussed here are: scientific motivation, the observatory and its relation to other facilities, the science instruments, some science examples, status, and the planned observing program.