SOFIA

This is SOFIA -- the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy -- which calls Dryden's Palmdale, Calif., facility, home. It is a Boeing 747-SP that was flown by Pan Am and that more recently has been custom retrofitted with a purpose-built door and a large telescope used for observations into the deep night sky.

According to SOFIA's chief science adviser, Eric Becklin, the plane and its telescope are used for, among other things, studying dust out in the stars. "Dust forms planets and us," he said. "We are studying the dust we come from."