The SOFIA telescope plane bids farewell. The US space agency’s flying observatory will complete its mission no later than September 30, 2022. But for what reasons?
NASA announced on its official website to end the SOFIA mission (Stratospheric Observatory For Infrared Astronomy), no later than September 30, 2022. As a reminder, it was through a Boeing plane, responsible for transporting an observation telescope, that the space agency had launched this mission. The main mission had ended in 2019, but it had been extended afterwards.
Why end the mission of the SOFIA aircraft telescope?
The problem is mainly financial. In its statement released on April 28, NASA said it had “ concluded that SOFIA’s scientific productivity does not justify its operating costs. The report also revealed that SOFIA’s capabilities do not coincide significantly with the science priorities that the decadal survey has identified for the next decade and beyond.. »
The National Academies of Astronomy and Astrophysics 2020 survey reported here did a good job of assessing the value of continuing the SOFIA mission, weighing the pros and cons. NASA estimates that the low scientific productivity of SOFIA justifies stopping the operation before the end of the year. What’s more, the telescope’s capabilities are no longer really tied to current scientific priorities. The Decadal Survey, the official publication of the United States National Research Council on the field of planetary sciences, recommended that NASA stop this mission, which it agreed to do.
What was the objective of the SOFIA mission?
The objective of the SOFIA mission was to carry out seven nocturnal scientific flights of about ten hours and thus observe several critical celestial targets in the southern hemisphere. The telescope carried by a Boeing plane initially focused on the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds, as these two galaxies are gravitationally linked to the Milky Way. Supervised by a team of 20 engineers and astronomers, a single instrument was used during the mission: the linear imaging spectrometer, known as FIFI-ILS.
During its operational phase, the telescope mainly studied stellar clusters, especially from Chile: this was where they were most easily observable. It has also managed to capture unique and exclusive images of certain galaxies, such as the Firework Galaxy.