NASA to operate the world’s largest airborne observatory out of Christchurch

NASA aircraft with observatory, cruises over central Texas

From 2009, the NASA Science Mission Directorate in partnership with Germany’s DLR Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (German Aerospace Center) is planning to operate the world’s largest airborne infrared observatory out of Christchurch for two months of the year.

The observatory, dubbed SOFIA (Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy), will be carried skyward into the stratosphere onboard a modified Boeing 747SP, where observations will be made of the radiation of celestial objects at wavelengths from the visual and into the far-infrared. The observations that astronomers expect to make onboard would be impossible for even the largest and highest of ground-based telescopes. The observatory and plane modifications include a gyro-stabilised 2.5 metre infrared telescope, an on board mission control area, a telescope cavity with cavity door and a cavity environment system.

The South Island’s strategic location for Southern Hemisphere observations should prove a windfall for New Zealand’s astronomers and engineers, with NASA offering opportunities for locals to participate in SOFIA operations. NASA’s plans also include mention of the possibility to take teachers and classes onboard the observatory, although these details would need to be ironed out in further discussions with the partnership.

For the other 10 months of the year, NASA plan to operate SOFIA out of its home base at NASA's Ames Research Center at Moffett Federal Airfield near Mountain View, California. SOFIA is expected to operate three or four nights a week for at least 20 years. It will be used to study many different kinds of astronomical objects and phenomena, including star birth and death; formation of new solar systems; planets, comets and asteroids in our solar system; nebulae and dust in galaxies; and black holes.