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SOFIA Sees Jupiter's Ancient Heat
astroengine writes "The flying telescope SOFIA took its maiden flight on Wednesday, and its 'first light' images have already been released. The cool thing about SOFIA is that it flies high enough (integrated inside a converted 747, taking it to an altitude of 41,000 ft) to carry it above 99% of the atmosphere's infrared-absorbing water vapor. This means it can collect 80% of the IR radiation that hits orbital telescopes (like NASA's Spitzer) but without the huge cost of being launched into space. Also, SOFIA is expected to last 20 years, many times the operational lifespan of space missions. Already, SOFIA has returned stunning results, including the observation of heat leaking through Jupiter's clouds, heat that was generated billions of years ago when the gas giant was forming."
I heard about this a while back and am still puzzled as to how you isolate a space telescope from vibrations while its still somewhat within the atmosphere. Is there very little or no turbulence at its flight altitude?
IT never fails to amaze me that NASA does not send a balloon to 100,000 feet and load it up with all kinds of scientific equipment. That way, they would have advantages of being almost in space, but for a fraction of the cost of sending anything in space.
Also, infrared instruments usually need to be actively cooled, which means that the spacecraft needs a supply of coolant, such as liquid nitrogen. The coolant usually runs out long before anything on the spacecraft breaks down. So, the lifespans of space-based infrared telescopes tend to be limited by the amount of coolant that can be stored onboard. Sofia does not have that problem because it can refill its tanks every time it finished flying.
Just because you are paranoid does not mean that no-one is out to get you.
I could swear the hubble has been up for 20 years.
Indeed. But Hubble's optics and instruments are optimized for operating in the near-ultraviolet and visible ranges. The more recent Spitzer telescope operates in infra-red (3 micron to 180 micron), so it is a more salient comparison. Spitzer's operational life is limited by its coolant supply of 360 liters of liquid helium http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/technology/cryostat.shtml, unlike Hubble, which does not need cryogenics.
Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. - Voltaire
Yes, for all the bad press NASA may have received in its past, there have been at least a few outstanding feats achieved by the program, the Hubble being one of these.
In 1990 the Hubble space telescope was launched and put successfully into orbit, and with a few extremely successful "service missions" has allowed us insight to the universe in many ways we might have not seen otherwise (at least for a while!): We have gained understanding how are universe is expanding and the rate at which it is expanding largely due to the contributions of the telescope, we have established the presence (observable!) of black holes, and much more!
To really answer your question however and reiterate the AC's comment on a mission's length, you just don't plan for those type of life-cycles - yes every hardware piece's MTBF may be long, but when averaged together, honestly a car analogy will do best: after 200,000 miles in the vehicle, it usually makes sense to just get a new car instead of deal with the innumerable repairs.
We should start a new Slashdot and return control to the geeks. It actually wouldn't be that hard to get some users to
Personally I am attracted to the alternative Electric Universe theory because they recognize a need to back up their statements with laboratory experiments, and with theories that do have a great deal of proof behind them, such as the behavior of plasma.
LOL.
Electric Universe holds that the solar wind is caused by the sun's electric charge, creating a current of protons outward.
Actual experiment indicates that the solar wind is comprised of roughly equal amounts of protons and electrons traveling outward from the sun. With no net movement of charge there is no current, and Coulomb's Law says an electric field cannot move oppositely charged particles in the same direction, both indicating (though it's really one thing, the Theory of Electromagnetism) that the Sun has no net charge.
As one would expect from the well-verified theory of plasma behavior, the majority of which are quasi-neutral, with those that aren't being necessarily non-dense.
So, yeah, they ignore experiments that prove their most basic premises wrong, and don't even understand the well-established theory their ideas are allegedly based on.
But hey, I can't tell you who you should be attracted to.
The enemies of Democracy are
No, it's not. If you're in view of the sun it's incredibly hot. And even when it's cold there's no medium to absorb your waste heat. In the same way that water cools you faster than air because water is denser, a void won't cool you at all beyond what you can naturally radiate away.
God invented whiskey so the Irish would not rule the world.
The Sun is throwing photons at us, which is how both light and heat get's here.
And that is the problem. Yes, things in space will cool down, however, the only way this occurs is through what is called "black body radiation", that is, the emission of photons. Cooling down this way is slower than being cooled by air, water or some other substance.
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int 21h