SOFIA: Stratospheric Obsrvatory for Infrared Astronomy

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SOFIA Stratospheric Obsrvatory for Infrared
Astronomy
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SOFIA Rollout at L3 Communications in Waco,
Texas-- September 2006
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HAWCHigh-resolution Airborne Wideband Camera

• Facility far infrared camera for SOFIA spectral
  range 40-300 µm
• Built by University of Chicago
• Four filters at 53, 88, 155, and 215 µm,
  0.1ltDl/llt0.2
• 12 x 32 Pop-up Detectors (PUD) array cooled to
  0.2K with adiabatic demagnetization refrigerator
  (ADR)
• Design optimized to give the highest possible
  angular resolution at each wavelength
• Science formation and evolution of stars,
  galaxies, and planetary systems physics of dust
  and the interstellar medium
• Status in assembly and testing phase at
  University of Chicago

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SOFIAs angular resolution is limited by
atmospheric turbulence at short wavelengths and
by diffraction at long wavelengths.
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HAWC/SOFIA gt Goal is sharpest possible images of
the far-infrared universe. Three times better
angular resolution than Kuiper Airborne
Observatory or Spitzer Space Telescope.
Science example formation of massive stars in
the Orion Molecular Cloud
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Pop-up Detector Array
folded silicon bolometers
12 32 array
row of 32 folded bolometers
JFET modules
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Assembly of HAWC far infrared detector at Goddard
Space Flight Center . 1x32 rows of detectors are
stacked into a 12x32 array and connected to
electrical fanout boards via microbridge thermal
isolators.
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Flight Cryostat
Vapor-Cooled Shields
Fore-optics assembly images telescope pupil onto
cold Lyot stop
HTS System kinematic support and thermal
isolation of helium-cooled optics assembly via
Kevlar straps
Opto-Mechanical System (OMS) Four
interchangeable lenses with broadband filters,
eight interchangeable Lyot stops and/or filters
in cold pupil plane.
Detector
Adiabatic Demagnetization Refrigerator (ADR)
cools detector to 200 mK
Liquid Helium Reservoir capacity 60 liters
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Adiabatic Demagnetization Refrigerator Cools
detector array to 200mK
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Assembly of HAWC flight cryostat
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University of Chicago astronomers pioneered
airborne infrared astronomy with 30-cm Lear Jet
telescope during 1970s.
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