SOFIA Observations of Stellar Occultations, Extra-solar Planets, Asteroids, and Comets

We describe the joint U.S./German Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) Project to operate a 2.5-meter (98.4-inch) airborne infrared (IR) telescope in a Boeing 747SP (Fig. 1). Operating at altitudes up to 45,000 ft (13.72 km) above > 99.8% of the atmospheric water vapour, SOFIA can observe in the 0.5 um to 1.6 mm region with an average transmission of 80%. SOFIA will be staged out of NASA Dryden Flight Research Center's aircraft operations facility at Palmdale, CA for science operations. The SOFIA Science Center will be located at NASA Ames Research Center, Moffet Field, CA. First science flights will begin in 2009 and the first General Observer science call will be in 2010. An operations schedule of ~120 flights per year will commence by 2014, and the observatory is expected to operate for more than 20 years. SOFIA's initial instrument complement includes broadband imaging cameras, moderate resolution spectrographs capable of resolving broad features due to dust and large molecules, and high resolution spectrometers suitable for kinematical studies of molecular and atomic gas lines at km/s resolution. The call for the next generation of instruments will occur in 2010. The first generation and future instruments will enable SOFIA to make unique contributions to a broad array of science topics. The characteristics of the SOFIA mission are described. In particular, we discuss potential planetary science applications of SOFIA.