Flying off into the sunset. ☀ Our SOFIATelescope, the world’s largest airborne telescope, embarked on its final flight on Sept. 29, 2022—marking the end of an era. Since 2010, the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) has flown 921 flights, gathering valuable data on the cosmos. The telescope, which is housed and flown in a modified Boeing 747 aircraft, uses infrared light to peer deep into space from high in Earth's stratosphere. Cruising at nearly 41,000 ft (12,500 m) in the dark of night and twilight of morning, SOFIA has taken breathtaking observations of a plethora of celestial objects. Although SOFIA’s days of flying are over, there's still work to be done. Astronomers have years of legacy data to sift through, which potentially houses further scientific discoveries. Swipe to view a small collection of some of the cosmic imagery assembled using SOFIA data. 1. Centaurus A. A galaxy with orange and dark red dust lanes comprising a center column and a ...