Eye in the Sky

Discovery

BBC

Science, Technology

4.3 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 28 January 2019

⏱️ 27 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

On this mission, SOFIA is setting out to study Titan, Saturn’s biggest moon, by flying into the faint shadow that it casts as it blocks the light from a faraway star. It’s a phenomenon called an occultation, and if the mission succeeds, it will reveal new details about Titan’s atmosphere. SOFIA is a very unusual observatory. It is a 747 aircraft with a hatch in the side, which opens in flight to reveal a large, custom-built telescope – carefully engineered to work inside a moving jet plane. Its full name is the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, and it’s a joint project of Nasa and the German space agency, DLR. The catch? That shadow is moving across the earth at 22 kilometres per second. Join Dr Jonathan Webb from the ABC in Australia for episode one of The Chase - a special four-part series about science on the run. (Photo: SOFIA is a heavily modified 747SP which was acquired by Nasa in the mid-1990s after spending 20 years as a passenger jet. (Credit: Wayne Williams)

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, it's Doleepa, and I'm at your service.
0:04.7	Join me as I serve up personal conversations
0:07.1	with my sensational guests.
0:08.9	Do a leap, interviews, Tim Cook.
0:11.2	Technology doesn't want to be good or bad.
0:15.0	It's in the hands of the Creator.
0:16.7	It's not every day that I have the CEO of the world's biggest company in my living room.
0:20.6	If you're looking at your phone more than you're looking in someone's eyes
0:24.0	you're doing the wrong thing.
0:26.0	Julie, at your service,
0:28.0	listen to all episodes on BBC Sales. And Tio's on two. We are level at 34,000 feet. Do you guys have any issues with me opening the door?
0:49.0	I'm above the Pacific on a 747. No. and they're about to open the door.
0:56.0	The door is open.
0:57.0	I'm Jonathan Webb from the ABC in Australia and on this episode of the Chase for Discovery on the BBC we are doing
1:06.0	astronomy at altitude. My journey started on a normal airplane bound for New Zealand.
1:17.0	This Boeing 747 SP has been extensively modified.
1:21.6	But here in Christchurch I'm getting briefed on a very different plane.
1:26.2	I'm about to hitch a ride on NASA's 1.25 billion dollar flying observatory.
1:35.0	Systems and interior have almost nothing in common with what you are accustomed to.
1:40.0	And you are expected to know how to do things not asked of you before.
1:45.0	It is vital, therefore, that you learn its features, equipment, and safety procedures for your safety and the safety of others.
1:52.0	Here are the survival kits.
	...

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