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>> They have uncaged the, the telescope
and they're going to acquire target.
>> My students are 10- and 11-year-olds,
so some of their questions, well first their, the questions
that they wanted to know was about, you know,
extraterrestrial life, and to what extent, you know, we were,
we were going to be gathering information about that.
And while it's not the same, I don't think
that this is what they had in mind when, when,
when they asked this question, I think one of the things
that is very interesting is tonight's mission we're looking
at star formation.
>> So these are just raw frames as they come off the camera.
>> And so it's not the type of life
that they're thinking about, but it is, in a way,
this idea of the origins, right, of something.
>> So these are, these are now process frames
that really show the background
and the actual astronomical sources.
I think the science on this target is,
is that these are stars that are really literally just
at the early parts of formation, and so they're still collapsing
under gravity and they haven't fully switched on fusion
in their cores yet, or maybe it's like a balance
of maybe 50% fusion, 50% gravity.
>> So you're saying that the one they're doing now is a little
bit more graphical, if more of a --
>> So I'm really interested to see the, some of the information
that we're collecting today that deals with star formation.
We deal a lot with, in eighth grade, about genetics
and looking at the life cycle of, of genes and organisms,
and this allows us to kind of talk
about the life cycle of a star.
It allows them to see that, that something even as complex
or as far away as a star, you know, can have a life cycle
of its own and, and helps them kind
of see how stars fit into, into that.
>> Like here?
>> Yeah.
>> So these are three different imagers that we have.
It's hard to see because they just happen to be overlaid,
but this is the target that we're looking at right there.
>> For me, it's been, I mean, everything from, you know,
sitting down and having conversations of star formation,
which is something that I've never been, you know,
at a table with scientists and astronomers that,
you know, can speak about that.
Normally you'll, you'll read it in books, like I said,
or you'll take a class, but it doesn't get any more real
than actually sitting with the people who are studying,
you know, this type of material.
>> And that allows us to measure the thermal emission
from the telescope itself.
>> A raw image is going to look like this,
and so you can see that it's not flat.
>> I'd love to bring out my students on an experience
like this, but I can't, so I look for opportunities for me
to experience things like this and then bring back
that experience to them.
>> And then the final step is that merge step
where you add everything together,
and then this is the final image that you see here.
>> You know, I really teach the 21st century skills
like critical thinking, collaboration, communication,
and problem solving, and so just giving them, you know,
real world examples of how all these skills come together is,
is going to be so valuable to my students.
>> So if you were to look at the brightness versus wavelength
from that image, if it were a cool object you would see
it rising.
>> I was very pleasantly surprised to see
that a large number of the teachers
that were selected were not only teachers
who don't necessarily have to teach stellar astronomy
to their students, but they're actually non-science teachers,
and so I think there's a lot to this program
that could benefit teachers or educators across the board
that don't think that just because you don't teach
that to your students that there aren't experiences
that can be a part of the, the SOFIA program that,
that you can't be a part of.
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>> We are level at 40,000 feet and on heading.