Supernova
Ever seen a supernova?
Sure, everyone's seen a Super Nova -- jacked up with mag wheels and a tall whip antenna, but this supernova is quite different.
I was on board NASA's Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, SOFIA, on the night of Feb. 20/21, for a 10-hour science mission to study Supernova 2014J -- a star about the size of our sun that exploded. From Earth's vantage point, the explosion occurred on Jan. 21.
Some of the top supernova experts were on the flight and they were quite excite with what they saw. They took some photos for those of us in the general public to oooh and ahhh over, but the science staff was most interested in the spectra obtained during the flight. The majority of the observations were made at 39,000 and 41,000 feet out over the Pacific Ocean.
My story about the flight is here:
http://www.sofia.usra.edu/News/news_2...
Sure, everyone's seen a Super Nova -- jacked up with mag wheels and a tall whip antenna, but this supernova is quite different.
I was on board NASA's Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, SOFIA, on the night of Feb. 20/21, for a 10-hour science mission to study Supernova 2014J -- a star about the size of our sun that exploded. From Earth's vantage point, the explosion occurred on Jan. 21.
Some of the top supernova experts were on the flight and they were quite excite with what they saw. They took some photos for those of us in the general public to oooh and ahhh over, but the science staff was most interested in the spectra obtained during the flight. The majority of the observations were made at 39,000 and 41,000 feet out over the Pacific Ocean.
My story about the flight is here:
http://www.sofia.usra.edu/News/news_2...
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