World's Largest Airborne Telescope Delivered

Thurog writes "SOFIA, the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, has received the telescope built in Germany by the German Space Agency, DLR. SOFIA consists of a Boeing 747SP aircraft modified by L-3 Communications Integrated Systems to accommodate a 2.5 meter reflecting telescope. When on a mission, it will soar through the higher levels of the atmosphere, thereby overcoming the fact that atmospherical humidity filters most of incoming infrared radiation. It's not the first airborne telescope, but so far the most powerful."

Comments

Why not use a balloon?

[HorsePunchKid]

I was surprised to see that the platform for the telescope is a 747. I was under the impression that most stratospheric observation was done with balloons. This is what BOOMERANG used to map the cosmic microwave background, which (along with COBE) was pretty groundbreaking. So is there something about infrared astronomy that makes a jet a more suitable platform? I would assume that a jet's flight would cause a lot of small-scale vibration in the telescope that would seriously degrade the quality. Is there some way around that? Adaptive optics or something?

Also, slightly OT, but a new ground-based gamma ray telescope has just been put into action. Interesting, because it detects the rays indirectly by observing the Cherenkov radiation.