{"id":285582,"date":"2017-12-01T12:24:32","date_gmt":"2017-12-01T17:24:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/?p=285582"},"modified":"2020-04-13T17:17:40","modified_gmt":"2020-04-13T21:17:40","slug":"professor-assists-nasa-mission-to-measure-infrared-astronomy-285582","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/professor-assists-nasa-mission-to-measure-infrared-astronomy-285582\/","title":{"rendered":"Professor assists NASA mission to measure disks that give birth to planets"},"content":{"rendered":"

Telescopes are typically mounted on satellites in space or grounded in earth-bound observatories. Dan Watson<\/a>, however, is involved in a NASA mission that puts telescopes in a different realm\u2014the earth\u2019s stratosphere.<\/p>\n

Watson, professor and chair of physics and astronomy at Rochester<\/a>, is part of a team of researchers developing new instrumentation for the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA)<\/a>. Unlike typical observatories, SOFIA is situated on a Boeing 747SP jet airliner.<\/p>\n

\u201cSOFIA is NASA\u2019s third-generation high-altitude airborne observatory,\u201d Watson says. \u201cThe University of Rochester and airborne astronomy go way back. [Rochester] professors Judy Pipher and Bill Forrest observed on both the first and second generation airborne telescopes, and I used the second generation one for my PhD thesis.\u201d<\/p>\n

The jet that currently houses SOFIA is modified to carry a 2.5-meter diameter telescope. It can fly at altitudes of 39-45,000 feet, slightly higher than a typical commercial airliner, and is usually aloft for about 900 hours per year. At these altitudes, the instruments on board can see celestial objects in infrared light that typically elude ground-based observatories: most infrared wavelengths are absorbed by water vapor in the earth\u2019s atmosphere before reaching the ground.<\/p>\n