Nasa readies jumbo eye in the sky

Nasa readies jumbo eye in the sky

news.bbc.co.uk

It carries a 2.7m telescope, and offers astronomers a unique opportunity to explore the cosmos.

It can identify objects that emit radiation at infrared wavelengths, which are not visible to the human eye.

(visit the link for the full news article)

This 2.7m telescope will be used to survey infrared images in flight above the ' water vapor of the Earth's atmosphere. ' It will be able to identify objects that emit radiation at infrared wavelengths not visible to the human eye ;makes you wonder if the real reason is trying to observe an approaching hypothetical Brown Dwarf known as Nemesis.

news.bbc.co.uk
(visit the link for the full news article)

With the budget cuts in today's economy along with the curtailing of NASA by the Obama administration , I doubt that this is a scientific study by any means.

reply to post by L.HAMILTON

Jumbo eye reminds me too much of the "all seing eye"!

Well, well, well, so many black-budget space missions definitely don't ring the scientific study bell ; Just like Obama's so-calledambitious manned mission to an astroid or something! Not even weaponizing space for earth wars explains all those missions.
You got that right!

Originally posted by L.HAMILTON
With the budget cuts in today's economy along with the curtailing of NASA by the Obama administration , I doubt that this is a scientific study by any means.

Perhaps you missed this part:

The aircraft flies at up to 45,000 feet (13,716m). The high altitude means it is above 99% of the water vapour that absorbs most infrared radiation from space.

In effect, it opens a window to the Universe that was previously obliterated from view, and allows observations to be made that are impossible with Earth-bound telescopes.

That would have many benefits that otherwise would require orbital-based telescopes to view at infrared wavelengths.

This is for real science.