NASA's Boeing 747SP and giant telescope are back on New Zealand shores for intergalactic observations in the Southern Hemisphere.
The Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) landed at Christchurch International Airport on Monday.
The plane is four inches shorter than a normal Boeing 747, with a bigger tail. It has an area the size of a garage door at the back, which opens up for the 2.7-metre-diametre, German-made telescope. It can show a completely clear image of a $1 coin at 200 kilometres distance away, and allows the astronomers to map the make-up, or "DNA", of molecular components.
There will be 25 flights over seven weeks to observe star formations, planets and interstellar regions.
Each flight is 10 hours and gets up to 14 kilometres in altitude, operations manager Eric Young says. In comparison, a commercial flight gets between 10 kilometres and 12 kilometres in altitude.
The scope only moves 2-3deg, so the plane has to position itself in the direction the team wants to observe.
"A bit like a jigsaw puzzle," Mr Young says.
The German-made telescope inside the plane (Newshub.)
NASA comes to New Zealand because the atmosphere is dry and cold and the intergalactic centre is more easily observed. The remnants of stars that have blown up are also only able to be seen in the Southern Hemisphere, Mr Young says.
It takes months of planning for the flights and each one uses more than 113,000 litres of fuel.
Their first scheduled mission is scheduled to take off on Thursday. The programme is set to run for the next 20 years.
Newshub.
