Scientific Observations Gallery

Caption

Left: Optical image of Jupiter taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. Right: SOFIA image of Jupiter demonstrating the variation in its brightness temperature with latitude. The two images show Jupiter in approximately the same orientation.

Credits

Left: NASA/ESA; Right: NASA/SOFIA/de Pater et al., 2021

Caption

Averaged spectrum of the SOFIA/GREAT [CII] data (blue), with the ancillary CO (red) and HI (yellow) spectra. We decomposed the [CII] profile by fitting a combination of the CO and HI spectra shown in black, revealing that the [CII] originates from the molecular and atomic gas about equally.

Credits

Tarantino et al. 2021

Caption

Image of M101 showing the 24 μm Spitzer emission from warm dust (red), the CO (2-1) emission from molecular gas (green), and the 21-cm HI emission that traces the atomic gas (blue). The pointings from SOFIA/GREAT are shown as white circles and squares, designating areas of high and low star formation, respectively. Pointing selection shows a range of environments, probing the metallicity gradient in each galaxy and different levels of star formation rate.

Credits

Kennicutt et al. 2003 (SINGS survey from Spitzer/MIPS), Leroy et al. 2009 (HERACLES survey from IRAM 30-m), and Walter et al. 2008 (THINGS survey from VLA)

Caption

A map shows the direction of magnetic fields in the G47 bone overlain atop an image of the G47 filament as seen by the Herschel Space Observatory. The red and yellow areas are high-density regions of dust and gas.

Credits

G47: ESA/Herschel/PACS/SPIRE/Ke Wang et al. 2015; Polarization map: Stephens et al., 2022

Caption

Magnetic field streamlines from the Effelsberg radio telescope superposed on an image of the central 1 kpc starburst ring of the spiral galaxy NGC 1097 obtained with the NACO adaptive optics on the VLT. Gas streams follow the magnetic field, feeding the super massive black hole with matter from the galaxy. The image was constructed by stacking J- (blue), H- (green), and Ks-band (red) images.

Credits

NASA, the SOFIA science team, E. Lopez-Rodriguez et al.; ESO/Prieto et al.

Caption

Because NGC 7331 is viewed at an incline, there is a marked difference in the ionized carbon emission observed in different parts of the galaxy, depending on our observing perspective. Emission from within the delineated donut shape varies between the side of the galaxy that is closer to us (lower sector) and its far side (upper sector). This shows that viewing perspective has an effect on the origin of the ionized carbon emission observed.

Credits

Adam Block/Mount Lemmon SkyCenter/University of Arizona/Sutter et al., 2022

Caption

The H ₂ emission line profiles for the sunny , ridge , and shady regions of the Ghost Nebula. No emission is detected in the sunny side of the PDR, showing the sharp photo-dissociation transition caused by the efficient self-shielding in H ₂ . The dashed blue line shows the center of the detected emission line and the solid red line shows the Gaussian fit.

Credits

Soam et al. 2021

Caption

Three-color image of the Ghost Nebula with C ⁺ emission from SOFIA/upGREAT (red), molecular hydrogen fluorescence from the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (green), and HCO ⁺ gas emission from CARMA (blue). The ridge described in the text is the green-white vertical structure in the lower right corner.

Credits

Soam et al. 2021

Caption

Magnetic field streamlines detected by SOFIA are shown over an image of the Keyhole Nebula, part of the larger Carina Nebula, imaged with the ESO 3.6-metre telescope on La Silla.

Credits

NASA, the SOFIA science team, Y. Seo; ESO

Caption

SOFIA FORCAST measurements (orange) of the V838 Mon spectrum, and the best-fit composite model of SOFIA data with a silicate-to-alumina ratio of 50:50 (yellow), overlaid atop an image of V838 Mon obtained by the Hubble Space Telescope, which shows the light echo illuminating circumstellar material.

Credits

V838 Mon: ESA/Hubble & NASA; Spectra: Woodward et al.

Caption

The Hubble Space Telescope image of NGC 7479 created from observations at visible and near-infrared wavelengths with 20 cm radio continuum contours in yellow (middle panel). The boxes highlight the ends of the lower and upper counter-arms; expanded versions of these regions are shown in the lateral panels where the circles depict the FIFI-LS aperture.

Credits

ESA/Hubble & NASA

Caption

Ratios of [C II] over far-IR emission as a function of the infrared surface brightness. The blue symbols depict observations from a comparison sample (Diaz–Santos et al. 2017) and the shaded band is the fitted curve with 1-σ uncertainty showing the zone where the [C II] emission is compatible with star formation. The black and red symbols represent the data for the northern and southern counter-arm regions, respectively.

Credits

Fadda et al. 2021

Caption

Left: An image of the Sagittarius B region in the galactic center taken by SOFIA’s FORCAST instrument, combined with images from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope and the Herschel Space Observatory of the European Space Agency. Right: Ionized carbon intensity contours of the Sagittarius B region. The striped pattern is a scanning artifact due to the motion of the telescope. In both panels, crosses indicate the locations of the three star-forming cores of Sagittarius B2.

Credits

Left: NASA/SOFIA/JPL-Caltech/ESA/Herschel; Right: Harris et al., 2021

Caption

Magnetic pitch angle, Ψ(R), as a function of the galactocentric radius, R, for the spiral arms of the Whirlpool galaxy. Profiles show the far-infrared HAWC+ observations at 154 µm (blue) and the radio observations at 3 cm (green) and 6 cm (yellow). Note that the infrared and radio profiles are co-spatial in the inner part of the galaxy, but begin to deviate at around R=165 arcsec. Shading shows the uncertainty, and the black vertical dashed line shows the central beam of the observations.

Credits

Borlaff et al. 2021

Caption

Magnetic field streamlines detected by SOFIA are shown over an image of the Whirlpool galaxy from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope. For the first time, SOFIA’s infrared view shows that the magnetic fields in the outer arms do not follow the galaxy’s spiral shape and are instead distorted. The intense star formation activity in these regions, shown in red, may be causing the chaos, along with the forces from the yellow neighboring galaxy tugging on one of the spiral arms.

Credits

NASA, the SOFIA science team, A. Borlaff; NASA, ESA, S. Beckwith (STScI) and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)

Caption

Air glow above the horizon of the Earth. The green color is caused by the 557.7-nm transition of atomic oxygen as shown by its energy spectrum in the inset (not to scale). The spectrum (total width: 170 MHz) indicated by the white curve is the ground state emission of atomic oxygen at 4.7 THz. The image of the air glow was taken by astronauts aboard the International Space Station.

Credits

(DLR/NASA)

Caption

Noctilucent or “night shining” clouds forming in the mesosphere as seen from the International Space Station on May 29, 2016. These clouds form between 47 to 53 miles (76 to 85 kilometers) above Earth’s surface, near the boundary of the mesosphere and thermosphere, a region known as the mesopause. SOFIA is making direct measurements of atomic oxygen in this region, solidifying some of the basic science of how solar energy is exchanged between the Earth’s surface and space.

Credits

(ESA/NASA/Tim Peake)

Caption

A color image of the emissions in RCW 49, the star-forming region of Westerlund 2.

Credits

Tiwari et al.

Caption

Spectra of the 1.296 THz maser transition of water observed by the GREAT instrument on SOFIA toward the outflowing circumstellar envelopes of Mira and R Crateris. Red arrows indicate the systemic velocity of each star. Dashed lines indicate the baseline for each transition.

Credits

Neufeld et al. 2021

Caption

Artist’s impression of a pulsating variable star with an outflowing circumstellar envelope (orange) and embedded pockets of water masers (blue). The masing phenomenon occurs when a molecular transition exhibits a population inversion, and the rate of stimulated emission exceeds the rate of absorption resulting in a net negative absorption coefficient. Thus instead of being exponentially attenuated as it passes through an astrophysical medium, radiation is exponentially amplified.

Credits

Lynette Cook

Caption

Image of young star cluster Westerlund 1 taken by the Hubble Space Telescope toward the southern constellation of the Altar. Westerlund 1 is home to some of the largest and most massive stars known, including four red supergiants, six yellow hypergiant stars, 24 Wolf-Rayet stars, and several more unusual stars that continue to be studied. Westerlund 1 is relatively close-by for a star cluster at a distance of 15,000 light years, giving astronomers a good laboratory to study the development of massive stars.

Credits

ESA/Hubble & NASA

Caption

Hertzsprung-Russel diagram for the cool supergiants in Westerlund 1. The red supergiants (red circles) and yellow supergiants (yellow boxes) are plotted along with stellar isochrones (black curves). The supergiant luminosities are clearly inconsistent with the previous age estimate of 5 Myr. Instead, they appear to be an older population consistent with an age of 10 Myr.

Credits

Beasor et al. 2021

Caption

A portion of the spectrum of R Leonis (white) superimposed on an artistic interpretation of the star. The arrows indicate several CO₂ emission line peaks near 13.5 µm, and the yellow line is a model of Earth’s atmospheric transmission.

Credits

NASA/JPL-Caltech; Fonfría et al. 2020

Caption

Ro-vibrational diagram of the strongest observed CO₂ bands in R Leo. The chosen stellar effective temperature is 2750 K, with a continuum flux peaking at ~2.5 µm, which causes the initial radiative excitation of the CO₂ molecules up to high energy vibrational states through the bands at 2.7 µm and 4.2 µm.

Credits

Fonfría et al. 2020

Caption

Pre-outburst (blue) and post-outburst (red) spectral energy distributions from radiative transfer models for the episodic accretion event in NGC 6334 I. Blue data points are from the Very Large Telescope, Keck, Herschel, and the Sub-Milimeter Array. Red data points are from VISTA Variables in the Via Lactea (VVV) Survey, SOFIA, and ALMA.

Credits

Hunter et al. 2021

Caption

The Cat's Paw Nebula (NGC 6334), imaged here by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope using the IRAC instrument, is a star-forming region inside the Milky Way Galaxy. The dark filament running through the middle of the nebula is a particularly dense region of gas and dust. The inset shows the region of the high-mass protostar with pre- and post-outburst luminosity.

Credits

Cat’s Paw Nebula: NASA/JPL-Caltech; Left inset: De Buizer et al. 2000; Right inset: Hunter et al. 2021

Caption

[CII] 158 µm map of the Fireworks Galaxy.

Credits

[CII] map: Bigiel et al. ApJ 903, 2020

Caption

[CII] 158 µm map (black contours) of the Fireworks Galaxy overlaid on optical multicolor image from the LBT (Large Binocular Telescope).

Credits

[CII] map: Bigiel et al. ApJ 903, 2020; LBT image: D. Paris, V. Testa, LBC team, and D. Thompson, LBTO)

Caption

Magnetic fields lines in Messier 82 overlaid on a visible-and-infrared composite from the Hubble Space Telescope and the Spitzer Space Telescope. The galactic superwind from the central starburst is blasting out plumes of hot gas (red) and a halo of smoky dust (yellow/orange) perpendicular to the edge-on galaxy (white). Researchers used IR polarization data from SOFIA and tools that have been utilized extensively to study the physics around the Sun to extrapolate the potential magnetic field strength and structure up to 10 kpc around the galaxy. The field lines appear to extend indefinitely into intergalactic space, like the Sun’s solar wind, creating magnetic highways that channel star-processed matter beyond the starburst core.

Credits

NASA, SOFIA, L. Proudfit; NASA, ESA, Hubble Heritage Team; NASA, JPL-Caltech, C. Engelbracht

Caption

Optical image of the edge-on galaxy, NGC 891, showing dark, thread-like extinction features — walls of the chimneys — extending above and below the midplane. SOFIA [C II] observations reveal a significant mass of gas in the chimney walls.

Credits

Adam Block/Mount Lemmon SkyCenter/University of Arizona