Former physics teacher and co-supervisor of the astronomy youth group of the Kepler Society Margarita Riedel from Weil der Stadt was selected for a research flight on board SOFIA (Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy) in 2018. At the end of February 2019 the time had come.
On February 26th and 27th, she and three other teachers took part in two SOFIA research flights that took off from NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center in Palmdale, California. In this mission the German instrument - spectrometer FIFI-LS was attached to the telescope in order to be able to observe the stars and galaxies in the infrared range. The bar galaxy M66 in the constellation Leo and other cosmic objects were scientifically investigated. Margarita Riedel is the second representative of the Kepler Society on board the SOFIA observatory. Your colleague on the board, Ms. Hildrun Bäzner-Zehender, was already a participant in a SOFIA teacher flight in February 2017.
Press reports:
DSI-German SOFIA Institute
Stuttgart newspaper
Sindelfinger / Böblinger newspaper
The Rheinpfalz newspaper
RHEINPFALZ ON SUNDAY
Kreiszetung Böblinger Bote
City Weil der Stadt
Weekly paper Weil der Stadt
TOP-Metropoljournal (46 MB to download!)
“SOFIA - the flying astronomical eye”, see pages 26-31