Lear Jet Observatory

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NASA's Learjet 24, Lear Jet Observatory (October 1998)

The Lear Jet Observatory (LJO) was one of the first airborne observatories for infrared astronomy .

In the late 1960s, a telescope with a 30 cm primary mirror diameter was operated in a converted Learjet 24 for approximately one hour observation flights at an altitude of up to 13.7 km . This means that a large part of the earth's atmosphere , which absorbs infrared radiation , lies below the observer. The observation conditions were very simple - for example, the telescope was mounted in the place of a cabin window that had been removed. At that time, the LJO was operated by the Ames Research Center as part of NASA's Airborne Observatory Program.

The Lear Jet Observatory paved the way for later aircraft telescopes such as KAO (1971–1995) and SOFIA (from 2010).

In 1998 the LJO received two new, digital IR cameras which look out of two openings (with 15 cm (6 ″) and 25 cm (10 ″) diameter) in the roof of the fuselage towards the zenith and can be swiveled coaxially via coupled ball heads. The camera system is a development by NASA (Ames Research Center) and is or was operated by Dryden Flight Research Center (NASA), Edwards, California. Alternatively, a spectrometer could be used instead of a camera. The data storage was 27 GB.

With the Lear Jet Observatory it was discovered that the planets Jupiter and Saturn emit more energy than they absorb from the sun . Furthermore, star formation areas and galaxies were examined.

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