Ithaca College

Luke Keller, assistant professor of physics, has received funding as a coinvestigator through NASA's Astrobiology Science and Technology Instrument Development program. He and a team of scientists from NASA, the University of Texas at Austin, and Cornell University will upgrade a new camera system to be flown on the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA).

SOFIA is a 747 aircraft with a large telescope mounted in its fuselage. The airborne observatory, scheduled to begin operations in 2006, will fly at altitudes of up to 45,000 feet to observe infrared light that is completely absorbed in the earth's lower atmosphere and therefore invisible from the ground. The new effort will enable the camera to record spectra in addition to digital images. The spectra will allow scientists to study the chemical composition of distant objects such as newly forming solar systems, galaxies with bursts of star formation in their spiral arms, and comets in our own solar system. Professor Keller is in charge of the optical design and the data analysis software for the new system.