NASA’s SOFIA Observatory To Study Magnetic Universe, Active Black Holes And More

NASA on Friday said it was preparing the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy for its 2018 observations that are planned to take place between February 2018 and January 2019. During this time, SOFIA will study various phenomena, such as active black holes, Mars, a comet and the effects of magnetic fields on the formation of stars and planet.

SOFIA, which will see its fourth full year of operation, is a modified Boeing 747SP jetliner that can carry a telescope with a 100-inch diameter. Its newest instrument, the High-resolution Airborne Wideband Camera-Plus (called HAWC+, it was installed in April 2016), will be used in many of SOFIA’s planning observations.

Using a device called a polarimeter — which measures the alignment of incoming light waves — HAWC+ will collect data on “how magnetic fields affect the rate at which interstellar clouds condense to form new stars,” NASA said in its statement.

The instrument will also specifically study L1448, an object roughly 750 light-years from Earth which is a stellar nursery. In October 2016, researchers had announced observing the birth of three stars in that region of the Perseus constellation, and SOFIA observations will help researchers better understand what role magnetic fields have on star formation within such a gas cloud.

Stars are not the only things HAWC+ will study. Along with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array of radio telescopes in Chile (ALMA was the telescope that had seen the triple star-birth in L1448), it will also trace magnetic fields to better understand the formation of planets.

Moving away from magnetic fields, another program to use the HAWC+ will try to determine if the luminosity of energetic, active black holes is caused by the formation of stars in their vicinity or the accretion of material onto the black hole.

There are two other experiments for SOFIA that are much closer home than the others. One is to look for methane on Mars, with the observations to be conducted at the same time of the Martian year when the Curiosity rover found traces of it. The other is to study comet 46P/Wirtanen when it passes close to Earth. The comet’s dust may provide clues about the early solar system and how it evolved.

All these programs are scheduled to be carried out while SOFIA is at its home base, NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center inside Edwards Air Force Base, California. But in June and July, the flying observatory will be based in Christchurch, New Zealand, to better observe objects that are best seen from the Southern Hemisphere.

Some of the New Zealand observations include mapping 30 Doradus, or the Tarantula Nebula, in the nearby Large Magellanic Cloud. HAWC+ will also make its first-ever observations from the Southern Hemisphere, studying “magnetic fields in star-forming regions and around black holes in the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds.” Saturn’s moon Titan will also have its atmosphere analyzed as it passes across the face of another star.