NASA's Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) embarking on its final flight, on Thursday, US space agency shared some breathtaking cosmos images that were assembled using SOFIA's data.
SOFIA, the world's largest airborne telescope, is housed and flown in a modified Boeing 747 aircraft that has flown 921 flights since 2010.
The Theis flying telescope has taken off with many astronomers and has ranked numerous miles in the air. NASA quoted when sharing these images. "Cruising at nearly 41,000 ft (12,500 m) in the dark of night and twilight of morning, SOFIA has taken breathtaking observations of a plethora of celestial objects."
The first image is of Centaurus A—a galaxy with orange and red dust lanes and a Colum and a faint blue along its outskirts.
The second image shows us the 3D view of the Orion Nebula, which shows us the detailed structure of the nebula, including "bubbles" that have blown clear gas and dust by the powerful stellar wind.
NASA wrote about their image, which is of the Cigar Galaxy "Red streamlines follow outflows caused by an intense nuclear starburst. Around the center, a ring of starlight appears grey with hints of hydrogen appearing in red and dust in yellow."
SOFIA has been made in partnership with the German space agency, which is a flying observatory. SOFIA's development began in 1996 and made its first flight in 2010, but it did not reach full capabilty until 2014.
More water was discovered on the moon's surface most recently by SOFIA. Near the Clavius Crater region of the Moon, where the initial discoveries were made by scientists.
