SOFIA science community e-mail news, April 2011 1. SOFIA Splinter Session at the Boston AAS, May 23, 2011 2. SOFIA Employment Opportunities 3. SOFIA Completes First Science Flights in December 2010. 4. SOFIA Opens New Window on Star Formation in Orion 5. SOFIA'S First Flight with German GREAT Spectrometer 6. DSI's First German SOFIA Workshop and Announcement of Special German Call for Observing Proposals 7. DRAFT Announcement of Opportunity for SOFIA Second-Generation Instruments 8. SOFIA Observatory Status Update and Timeline 1. SOFIA Splinter Session at the Boston AAS, May 23, 2011 Date and Time: Monday May 23, 4:30 to 6:00 p.m. Location: Gloucester/Newbury Rooms at the Westin Copley Place We will hold a splinter session, "SOFIA Observatory: Opportunities for Scientists and Educators" during the AAS meeting in Boston. This session will address SOFIA's mission status, upcoming observing opportunities and instrument capabilities, call for proposals for 2nd-generation instruments and the Airborne Astronomy Ambassador program for educators to fly on SOFIA as partners with astronomers. Questions about the Boston AAS SOFIA workshop can be addressed to the session organizer, Dana Backman at "dbackman@sofia.usra.edu". More information can be found at the AAS website and: http://www.sofia.usra.edu/Science/index.html 2. SOFIA Employment Opportunities Currently available SOFIA USRA (Universities Space Research Association) jobs include: (A) Associate Scientist and (B) Software Engineer. The job descriptions are shown below. Email inquiries can be directed to as1102@ or as1101@sofia.usra.edu. Applications are currently being reviewed, but the positions are open until filled. More information can be found at: http://www.sofia.usra.edu/Employment/employment.html (A) Associate Scientist USRA is seeking an Associate Scientist to work on the data processing pipelines that will be provided to the science center from the principal investigators of the science instruments. After each science flight, the science instrument data is transferred to the Science Mission Operations Center. The data processing pipelines will then produce reduced and calibrated data for the guest investigators and the SOFIA archive. Astronomers active in research are encouraged to apply. Please submit your resume to as1102@sofia.usra.edu. (B) Software Engineer USRA is seeking a Software Engineer to work on the data processing pipelines that will be provided to the SOFIA science center from the principal investigators of the science instruments. After each science flight, the science instrument data are transferred to the SOFIA Data Cycle System (DCS) in the Science Mission Operations Center (SMOC). The data processing pipelines are then executed within the DCS to produce reduced and calibrated data for the guest investigators and the SOFIA archive. Engineers with experiences of pipeline development for space- and ground-based observatories are encouraged to apply. Applicants should submit a copy of their CV, and a statement of relevant work experiences, and names and contact information of three references. Please submit your resume to as1101@sofia.usra.edu. 3. SOFIA Completes First Science Flights in December 2010. SOFIA completed its first flights in the Short Science program, demonstrating the observatory's potential to make discoveries about the infrared universe. The December flights employed the Faint Object InfraRed Camera for the SOFIA Telescope (FORCAST) instrument developed by a team led by principal investigator Terry Herter of Cornell University. FORCAST obtained images at wavelengths from 5 to 40 micron. More information is available at: http://www.sofia.usra.edu/News/news_2011/01_11_11/index.html The raw data obtained during Short Science 1 are now public, and have been staged on the data archive. More information about these data, and details on how to access them will be posted shortly on the SOFIA Science Announcements page, http://www.sofia.usra.edu/Science/announcements.html 4. SOFIA Opens New Window on Star Formation in Orion The FORCAST camera on SOFIA produced infrared images of the Orion star-formation complex among other targets during the first science flights. A mid-infrared mosaic image from SOFIA offers new information about processes of star formation in and around Messier 42. A gallery of those images and more information is available at: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/SOFIA/multimedia/imagegallery/ SOFIA's view combines images at mid-infrared wavelengths of 19.7 microns (represented by green) and 37.1 microns (red). The latter wavelength cannot be accessed by any telescope on the ground or currently in space. Detailed structures in the clouds of star construction material can be seen, as well as warm clouds of dust and gas surrounding, and partly obscuring, clusters of luminous newborn stars. 5. SOFIA'S First Flight with German GREAT Spectrometer SOFIA completed its first science flight using the German Receiver for Astronomy at Terahertz Frequencies (GREAT) scientific instrument on Wednesday, April 6, 2011. GREAT is a high-resolution far-infrared spectrometer. Its low frequency detectors cover 1.25 - 1.5 THz (wavelengths of 240 - 200 micron) and 1.82 - 1.92 THz (165 - 156 micron). GREAT Principal Investigator Rolf Guesten of the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy in Bonn, Germany, and his team observed M17 (known as the Omega Nebula) in Sagittarius. The team detected and mapped radiation from ionized carbon atoms ([C II] at 1.9 THz) and carbon monoxide molecules (CO at 1.5 THz) across the interface of the nebula and interstellar clouds to probe the chemical reactions, motions of matter and flows of energy. GREAT focused on far-infrared "cooling" lines from interstellar clouds. The balance between heating and cooling processes regulates the temperature of the interstellar material and controls initial conditions for the formation of new stars. More information is available at: http://www.sofia.usra.edu/News/news_2011/04_07_11/index.html 6. DSI's First German SOFIA Workshop and Announcement of Special German Call for Observing Proposals The Deutsches SOFIA Institut (DSI) at Universitaet Stuttgart hosted a two-day workshop, February 28 - March 1 2011, to brief members of the German astronomical community on the current status of SOFIA and as a forum to prepare them to propose for the first German SOFIA open time of 3 flights in mid-2011. An important goal of the workshop was to familiarize the German scientific community with the operation of SOFIA in order to enable them to write successful observing proposals. The German Call for Proposals was officially released on March 4, 2011, and the deadline for submitting proposals was March 21. A total of 22 proposals was received; 18 to use the GREAT far-IR spectrometer, and 4 to use the FORCAST mid-IR camera. Selected proposals have been announced at: http://www.uni-stuttgart.de/dsi/observatorium/proposals/ science_demonstration/selected.html 7. DRAFT Announcement of Opportunity for SOFIA Second Generation Instruments The NASA Science Mission Directorate (SMD) released a draft Announcement of Opportunity (AO) for SOFIA's second generation instruments program for community review and comment on December 15, 2010. This solicitation will call for science investigations that include the development, delivery, and use of second generation instruments for the SOFIA observatory. The comment period for the draft SOFIA Second Generation Instruments AO ended on February 11, 2011. A telecon for potential proposers was hosted on January 26, 2011 by NASA HQ. During that telecon SOFIA's Program Scientist Paul Hertz indicates that the Call for Proposals is targeted for release in mid-2011. The AO states that NASA solicits investigations with (a) Facility Science Instruments, (b) Science Instrument Upgrades, and (c) Technology Demonstration Science Instruments. Among selected instruments, NASA intends to award funding to one instrument team beginning in mid-FY12 and others in mid-FY13. The presentations made supporting the telecon plus links to other useful information are posted at: http://soma.larc.nasa.gov/SOFIA/sofiapbtelecon_agenda.html. Questions about this Call for Proposals should be addressed to Paul Hertz (SOFIA Program Scientist and SMD Chief Scientist, NASA, Email: paul.hertz@nasa.gov). 8. SOFIA Observatory Status Update and Timeline SOFIA completes Short Science flights on April 15, 2011, and the Basic Science observing program will now proceed. Basic Science is the second phase of early science operations with participation of the broad science community in SOFIA science. More information about the Basic Science Call for Proposals and accepted proposals can be found at: http://www.sofia.usra.edu/Science/proposals/basic_science/ Basic Science flight windows for FORCAST are from May to June and for GREAT are in July and September, 2011. Integration and testing of the High-speed Imaging Photometer for Occultation (HIPO; P.I. Ted Dunham, Lowell Observatory) and First Light Infrared Test Experiment CAMera (FLITECAM; P.I. Ian MacLean, UCLA) are currently scheduled for September - October, 2011. The wavelength coverage of HIPO is 0.3-1 micron and of FLITECAM is 1-5 micron. SOFIA's next general call for observing proposals is expected to occur in fall or winter 2011. Please feel free to direct questions and comments to the SOFIA Science Center help desk at "sofia_help@sofia.usra.edu", and subscribe to SOFIA electronic news by sending an email to sofia_astronews@sofia.usra.edu with "subscribe" in the subject line.