Astrophysics and Astrochemistry with SOFIA

Presented by Ravi Sankrit, SOFIA Science Center/USRA

The Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) is a 2.7 meter telescope housed in a Boeing 747-SP aircraft. It will make observations over a broad wavelength range, from 0.3 to 1600 microns. SOFIA will fly at altitudes of up to 45,000 feet where it is above 99% of the water vapor in Earth's atmosphere, thereby opening wavelength-windows not available to ground based telescopes. SOFIA has a suite of first generation instruments that will provide sensitive, high angular resolution imaging and high-resolution spectra. SOFIA science operations will begin in 2010, and it has a planned operational lifetime of 20 years. I will describe the characteristics of SOFIA that will allow observations critical for the study of several astrophysical and astrochemical systems. I will discuss two such systems: photo-disassociation regions (PDRs) and regions of massive star formation, both examples of key science areas for SOFIA. I will also describe the overall SOFIA mission and its relevance in the context of other infrared and sub-millimeter observatories.