NASA posted a small, magnificent compilation of some of the cosmic pictures put together using SOFIA data on Thursday, as the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) plane took out on its final voyage. The SOFIA Telescope, the largest airborne telescope in the world that is housed and flown in a modified Boeing 747 aeroplane, has made 921 flights since 2010, according to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
The flying telescope has flown round trips carrying astronomers in groups, clocking up a lot of air miles in the process. “Sofia has obtained breath-taking observations of a variety of celestial objects while cruising at over 41,000 feet (12,500 m) in the dark of night and twilight of morning,” NASA captioned it.
The US space agency described Centaurus A, a galaxy with orange and dark red dust lanes that form a central column and a faint blue shell along its periphery, in the post. The Orion Nebula is depicted in 3D in the second post. This view highlights the nebula’s intricate structure, including a “bubble” that has been cleared of gas and dust by a strong star wind.
The Cigar Galaxy is depicted in the third image. “Strong nuclear starburst discharges are followed by red streamlines. A grey ring of starlight surrounds the centre, with hints of dust and hydrogen visible in red and yellow, respectively “NASA composed.
The space agency further stated that while the fifth image depicts the SOFIA mission flying into the sunset, the fourth image depicts the Omega Nebula.
SOFIA is a flying observatory that NASA and the German space agency (DLR) collaborated on. Development of the SOFIA mission started in 1996. Despite having taken off for the first time in 2010, it wasn’t fully operational until 2014. Even the Moon’s aqueous surface was discovered with the help of the flying observatory in 2020.
The year 2022 was also quite interesting for SOFIA. More water on the Moon’s surface was found in August, according to the SOFIA telescope. Near the Clavius Crater region of the Moon, where the initial discoveries were made, the scientists discovered water.
