Airborne observatory

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NASA's airborne infrared observatories — the Learjet Observatory, the Kuiper Airborne Observatory and SOFIA — pictured next to illustrations showing how the size of each telescope approximately compares to an adult.

An airborne observatory is an

absorbs
infrared radiation. Some drawbacks to this approach are the instability of the lifting platform, the weight restrictions on the instrument, the need to safely recover the gear afterward, and the cost compared to a comparable ground-based observatory.

Multiple observations of solar eclipses were performed from 1920 to 1980. NASA created first specialised airborne observatory, Galileo, in 1965. SOFIA, the latest such observatory, was retired in 2022.

History

Eclipse chasing

Main article: Eclipse chasing

Early attempts

Scientists of Naval Observation with special camera to photograph eclipse from the USS Los Angeles dirigible.[1]

First attempts to observe astronomical objects from planes were made in 1920 from a biplanes. Until 1960, the main objects of such observations were solar eclipses.[2]

In 1923, US Navy tried to observe

Naval Observatory to observe the solar eclipse of April 28, 1930 on Honey Lake, California, with Vought 02U-1 plane equipped with a camera, recorded "the approach of the shadow".[2]

Army Air Corps and the National Geographic Society organized another expedition in 1932, to observe the eclipse of August 31. Accompanied by Lieutenant Charles D. McAllister of the Army Air Corps, Stevens took the first photograph of the Moon's shadow projected onto the Earth during a solar eclipse.[5][2][6]

B-29s, stationed on the Aleutian Islands, successfully observed and photographed the eclipse.[2]

After the war

Two United States Air Force colonels inspecting the path of the eclipse of February 25, 1952 in preparation for an expedition to Africa.

For the solar eclipse of June 30, 1954, observations were made "from the open door of a special Lincoln aircraft". Photographs helped "to derive coronal brightness and polarization, along with sky brightness and polarization". Several missions were made in 1960s. Three

Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory (LASL) were used for eclipses observations from 1965 to 1980. The planes were operated by the Atomic Energy Commission.[2]

In 1973, the French

Le Bourget Air and Space Museum on permanent display in eclipse livery, with the portholes displayed.[8]

NASA used two retrofitted

WB-57F jet planes to chase the total solar eclipse of August 21, 2017. Telescopes were mounted on the noses of the planes, that allowed to capture the clearest images to date of the Sun's corona and the first-ever thermal images of Mercury, revealing how temperature varies across the planet’s surface. The high-definition pictures, captured 30 times per second, will be analyzed for wave motion in the corona to see if waves move towards or away from the surface of the Sun, and with what strengths and sizes.[9]

NASA observatories

First NASA airborne observatory, Galileo, was a modified

Gerard P. Kuiper performed a series of Venus observations in near infrared[11] and Mars opposition. Galileo II, also a Convair 990, was used for a very short time.[2]

To avoid atmospheric absorption of infrared radiation,

A-3 Skywarrior from the United States Navy that carried a 2-inch telescope in 1965 and 1966.[12] The Learjet Observatory with an open-port 12-inch telescope was proposed in 1966 by Low, and made its first flight in 1968. It allowed to perform infrared astronomy; among other discoveries are "the first measurement of the internal energies of Jupiter and Saturn, far-infrared observations of the great nebula in Orion, studies of star formation regions and the bright IR sources at the center of the Milky Way galaxy", and also to determine the nature of Venus' clouds using a spectrosopy.[2]

The

Gerard P. Kuiper. KAO was operational from 1974 to 1995, and usually flew about 70 flights per year. Among its discoveries are:[2]

discovery of the rings around the planet Uranus; detection of water vapor in comets; discovery of Pluto's atmosphere; the composition, structure, and dynamics of Supernova 1987a; luminosity, dust, and gas distributions in the Galactic Center; emission by shocked gas components of the interstellar medium; and the structure of star-forming clouds.

In terms of aperture, the largest aircraft-borne instrument to date is a 2.7 m (110 in) reflector telescope carried by a modified Boeing 747 for the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) project. This instrument was put into use for astronomical observation in 2010.[13] On 29 June 2015, the dwarf planet Pluto passed between a distant star and the Earth producing a shadow on the Earth near New Zealand that allowed SOFIA to study the atmosphere of Pluto.[14]

Features

Overview of wavelengths observable at different altitudes with an airborne observatory depicted.

By carrying the telescope to a sufficiently high altitude, the telescope can avoid

absorbs infrared radiation. Airplane also allows to place telescope exactly to the needed position.[2]
Some drawbacks to this approach are the instability of the lifting platform, the weight restrictions on the instrument, the need to safely recover the gear afterward, and the cost compared to a comparable ground-based observatory.

Airborne observatories are very expensive to operate, because they require a crew, a pilot, and fuel.[15] The cost of running SOFIA observatory per year was nearly the same as of the Hubble Space Telescope.[16]

List of specially-built airborne observatories

Observatory Photo Aircraft Tail# Telescope In-service Out-of-service Notes Refs
NASA Galileo Airborne Observatory
Convair 990
 N711NA 1965 1973 Destroyed in a mid-air collision. [2]
NASA
Learjet Observatory [de
] 		Learjet 24B N705NA 31 cm 1966 1974[a] [2][17][18]
NASA Kuiper Airborne Observatory (KAO)
Lockheed C-141A Starlifter
 N714NA 91 cm 1974 1995 Replaced both Galileo and Learjet, replaced by SOFIA. [18]
NASA-DLR Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) Boeing 747 N747NA 2.7 m 2010 2022 Replaced KAO. [18]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ last flight

References

  1. ^ a b Maloney, Wendi A. (21 August 2017). "Looking to the Sky: Solar Eclipse 2017 | Timeless". The Library of Congress. Retrieved 9 January 2024.
  2. ^
    ISSN 0096-736X
    .
  3. ^ LaFollette, Marcel Chotkowski (24 January 2017). "Science Service, Up Close: Up in the Air for a Solar Eclipse". Smithsonian Institution Archives. Retrieved 9 January 2024.
  4. ^ Aceto, Guy (26 January 2022). "To Catch a Shadow: The Great 1925 Solar Eclipse Aerial Expedition". HistoryNet. Retrieved 9 January 2024.
  5. ^ "Stevens Photographs Eclipse 5 Miles In Air. Army Expert Says That Corona Sprang Into Sight as if Switch Was Snapped". The New York Times. September 1, 1932. p. 10. Retrieved 30 December 2009. Flying at an altitude of five miles near the centre line of the eclipse zone, the aerial unit of the National Geographic Society's eclipse expedition, conducted by Captain Albert W. Stevens and Lieutenant Charles D. McAllister of the Army Air Corps, had an unobstructed view of the eclipse throughout totality. ...
  6. ^ "Albert W. Stevens Photo From 23,000 Feet - Raymond H. Fogler Library - University of Maine". Raymond H. Fogler Library. 14 April 2022. Retrieved 9 January 2024.
  7. ^ Mulkin, Barb. "In Flight: The Story of Los Alamos Eclipse Missions". Los Alamos Science. Retrieved October 21, 2018.
  8. ^ Chris Hatherill (9 March 2016). "When Astronomers Chased a Total Eclipse in a Concorde". Motherboard. Vice.
  9. ^ "Chasing the Total Solar Eclipse from NASA's WB-57F Jets - NASA". July 25, 2017. Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
  10. ^ "Crash of a Convair CV-990-30A-5 at Moffett AFB: 11 killed | Bureau of Aircraft Accidents Archives". www.baaa-acro.com. Retrieved 9 January 2024.
  11. ^ Cruikshank, D. P.; Kuiper, G. P. (1 January 1968). Arizona-NASA atlas of infrared solar spectrum - A preliminary report (PDF) (Report). Retrieved 9 January 2024.
  12. ^ Overbye, Dennis (June 20, 2009), "Frank J. Low, Who Helped Drive Field of Infrared Astronomy, Dies at 75", The New York Times
  13. ^ "SOFIA - NASA's Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy" (PDF). NASA. Retrieved 9 January 2024.
  14. ^ Veronico, Nicholas A.; Squires, Kate K. (29 June 2015). "SOFIA in the Right Place at the Right Time for Pluto Observations". NASA. Retrieved 1 July 2015.
  15. ^ Witze, Alexandra. "Costly SOFIA Telescope Faces Termination after Years of Problems". Scientific American. Retrieved 10 January 2024.
  16. ^ Войтюк, Александр. "Отчего телескопы не летают как птицы". N + 1 (in Russian). Retrieved 11 January 2024.
  17. ^ "History of Airborne Astronomy at NASA - NASA". NASA. 24 September 2018. Retrieved 8 January 2024.
  18. ^
    ISSN 1572-9672
    . Retrieved 9 January 2024.

Further reading
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