NASA's airborne infrared observatories — the Learjet Observatory, the Kuiper Airborne Observatory and SOFIA — pictured next to illustrations showing how the size of each telescope approximately compares to an adult.
An airborne observatory is an airplane or airship with an astronomical telescope. By carrying the telescope to a sufficiently high altitude, the telescope can avoid cloud cover, pollution, and carry out observations in the infrared spectrum, above water vapor in the atmosphere which absorbs infrared radiation. Some drawbacks to this approach are the instability of the lifting platform, the weight restrictions on the instrument, the need to safely recover the gear afterward, and the cost compared to a comparable ground-based observatory.
Multiple observations of solar eclipses were performed from 1920 to 1980. NASA created first specialised airborne observatory, Galileo, in 1965. SOFIA, the latest such observatory, was retired in 2022.
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An airborneobservatory is an airplane or airship with an astronomical telescope. By carrying the telescope to a sufficiently high altitude, the telescope...
The Gerard P. Kuiper AirborneObservatory (KAO) was a national facility operated by NASA to support research in infrared astronomy. The observation platform...
construct and maintain an airborneobservatory. NASA awarded the contract for the development of the aircraft, operation of the observatory and management of...
Astronomical observatories are mainly divided into four categories: space-based, airborne, ground-based, and underground-based. Ground-based observatories, located...
also airborneobservatories, such as the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy and the Kuiper AirborneObservatory. These observatories fly...
observatories that are used to observe celestial objects. Astronomical observatories are mainly divided into four categories: space-based, airborne,...
including the Great Observatory Technology Maturation Program, Habitable Worlds Observatory, and New Great Observatories. Airborneobservatory Balloon-borne...
Emergency Airborne Command Post, Shuttle Carrier Aircraft, and some experimental testbeds such as the YAL-1 and SOFIA airborneobservatory. Initial competition...
at Mauna Kea, Hawaii and a principal investigator on the Kuiper AirborneObservatory (KAO). On August 23, 2012, in a ceremony held at Dryden Flight Research...
for the USAF. Due to budget cuts, NASA announces that the SOFIA airborneobservatory project will end by October 2022, and the aircraft being used as...
biodiversity. He is the founder of the Global AirborneObservatory (GAO, formerly the Carnegie AirborneObservatory, or CAO) and the creator of Carnegie Landsat...
(painter), Japanese painter Kaō Ninga (fl. early 14th century) Kuiper AirborneObservatory Keith-Albee-Orpheum, abbreviated KAO or K-A-O, owners of an American...
Martian), Kuiper Scarp in Antarctica, and the now-decommissioned Kuiper AirborneObservatory were also named after him. Astronomers refer to a region of minor...
Wesley Simpson made observations of the clouds using the Kuiper AirborneObservatory. In October 2018, the existence of the Kordylewski clouds was reported...
James L. Elliot, Edward W. Dunham, and Jessica Mink using the Kuiper AirborneObservatory. The discovery was serendipitous; they planned to use the occultation...
A spectrum of the disk of Jupiter was obtained from the Kuiper AirborneObservatory, covering the 100 to 300 cm−1 spectral range. Analysis of the spectrum...
spacecraft, 24 portable ground-based telescopes, and NASA's SOFIA airborneobservatory in "the most challenging stellar occultation in the history of astronomy...
retrieve the Long Duration Exposure Facility and deploy the Chandra observatory, and also carried into space the first female commander of an American...
programs 10 & 11 John D. Mihalov Computational Fluid Dynamics Kuiper AirborneObservatory Viking program Biological Lab Tilt-rotor Galileo Probe John D. Mihalov...
used to direct airborne measurements in mixed-phase clouds 2010 - LOFAR station UK608 constructed Construction of Chilbolton Observatory started in 1963...
The Kuiper AirborneObservatory took an infrared image of the underside of Columbia during the reentry of STS-3 to study temperatures. The orbiter was...
NASA's airborne astronomy program, beginning with a 12-inch telescope in a Learjet in 1968 and followed in 1974 by the Kuiper AirborneObservatory with...
events, listed below. March 10 – Rings of Uranus discovered by Kuiper AirborneObservatory measurements of star occultation. August 12 – The NASA Space Shuttle...
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