Apr 05, 2023

ERAU’s recent SOFIA flight

Location: Prescott Public Library, Founder’s Suite

Speaker: Dr. Noel Richardson, Assistant Professor and students at Embry-Riddle University

Comments:
Dr. Noel Richandson recently led students from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in a rare opportunity to travel aboard the world’s largest flying observatory, NASA’s Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) to study unusual dust-forming objects called Wolf-Rayet binary systems. They conducted hands-on research, glimpsed the aurora borealis and got front-row seats to their dream careers.

Bio:
Dr. Noel Richardson, assistant professor of Physics and Astronomy recently received two grants from SOFIA totaling $67,000 that helped fund student research and the unique experience of flying on two 10-hour flights aboard SOFIA  His infrared observations are being used to study the origins and properties of the universe’s first specks of dust, which could have helped form planets and stars.