Stellar pulsations distribute key ingredient for life

As Carl Sagan famously said, "We're made of star stuff"—but how do stars distribute their essential "stuff" for life into space? NASA's telescope on an airplane, SOFIA, is finding some answers by watching pulsating stars ...

SOFIA finds clues hidden in Pluto's haze

When the New Horizons spacecraft passed by Pluto in 2015, one of the many fascinating features its images revealed was that this small, frigid world in the distant solar system has a hazy atmosphere. Now, new data helps explain ...

Macedonia: 8 million-year-old elephant-like remains found

Paleontologists from Bulgaria and Macedonia are excavating the fossilized remains of a prehistoric elephant believed to pre-date the mammoth, after its bones were discovered accidentally by a man working in a field.

Catching the shadow of a Neptunian moon

Researchers on the flying observatory SOFIA, the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, are preparing for a two-minute opportunity to study the atmosphere of Neptune's moon Triton as it casts a faint shadow on ...

Searching for distant worlds with a flying telescope

Researchers from the University of Bern, using an observatory on board a jumbo jet, have observed how the extrasolar Planet GJ 1214b is passing in front of its star, causing a kind of mini-eclipse. The first measurements ...

Astronomy from 40,000 feet and 43.5 degrees south

The Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, SOFIA, completed its fourth set of observations from Christchurch, New Zealand. The team spent seven weeks operating from the U.S. Antarctic Program facility at Christchurch ...

A ride on NASA's eye in the sky

As with most other telescopes, astronomers apply for observing time on SOFIA by submitting proposals that are being evaluated by peers for their scientific promise and intellectual merits. SOFIA, however, is special in that ...

SOFIA completes busy year, highlights of 2015

2015 was an exciting year for NASA's flying observatory, the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, or SOFIA. By flying at altitudes of more than 40,000 feet, above more than 99% of the water vapor in Earth's atmosphere, ...

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