 Soon a Boeing 747 airplane will be carrying a telescope high enough to capture the cosmos better than ever before. Called the the "Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy", (SOFIA) will soar above the atmospheric water vapor blocking most infrared light fom reaching ground based observatories.  When in use the 2.5 meter scope will give images better than even Hubble, and at a third of the cost!
 The scope will be in a non-pressurized, cooled compartment and it's controls will be integrated with the planes autopilot to capture steady images.. NASA’s pilots will actually fly the plane, but as one astronomer said  “Although we changed the plane to fly the telescope, when we’re observing, the scope actually flies the plane.â€
"Sofia" earned the 2007 Popular Science "Best of What's New" Award. To read more on the plane and scope, and see images of it, go to:
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Comments: 7
The 2.5-meter mobile telescope—operated by NASA and Germany’s space agency—will best the Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes by scanning the widest range of light of any scope, from ultraviolet to the far infrared.
This implies only that Sophia will best Hubble and Spitzer only in that it will be able to scan a wider range of light. And since Hubble and Spitzer can remain locked on target for days on end, it means that they can thus collect light for deeper and much more detailed photos. But then, I may just be missing something here.