SOFIA

Sofia is the capital and largest city of Bulgaria. It is situated in the Sofia Valley at the foot of the Vitosha mountain in the western parts of the country. The city is built west of the Iskar river, and has many mineral springs, such as the Sofia Central Mineral Baths. It has a humid continental climate. Being in the centre of the Balkans, it is midway between the Black Sea and the Adriatic Sea, and closest to the Aegean Sea. Known as Serdica in Antiquity and Sredets in the Middle Ages, Sofia has been an area of human habitation since at least 7000 BC. The recorded history of the city begins with the attestation of the conquest of Serdica by the Roman Republic in 29 BC from the Celtic tribe Serdi. During the decline of the Roman Empire, the city was raided by Huns, Visigoths, Avars and Slavs. In 809 Serdica was incorporated into the Bulgarian Empire by Khan Krum and became known as Sredets.

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SOFIA Detects Molecular Water on Nominally Dry Asteroids

Webb and SOFIA Telescopes Provide Deep Insight Into Asteroid Psyche’s Metallic Mystique

SOFIA Makes First Detection of Oxygen-18 in Mesosphere and Lower Thermosphere of Earth

NASA’s Retired SOFIA Aircraft Finds New Home at Arizona Museum

SOFIA Fails to Find Phosphine in the Atmosphere of Venus, But the Debate Continues

SOFIA Finds No Phosphine – a Potential Sign of Life – on Venus

SOFIA Spies a “Cataclysmic” New Type of Stellar Outburst

Sofia, the Historic Airplane-Borne Telescope, Lands for the Last Time

SOFIA flying observatory, which carried a 2.5-meter telescope aboard a modified Boeing 747SP airplane, has taken its final flight. Astronomers celebrate SOFIA's accomplishments and lament the loss of the unique window into the universe it provided.

NASA telescope plane SOFIA leaves Christchurch, New Zealand for final time. Eventually bound for California where it will be decommissioned and put into retirement.

Flying telescope SOFIA grounded by storm damage as mission end approaches

NASA's SOFIA observatory is flying for the last time

NASA's flying SOFIA observatory is in New Zealand for the last time

USRA Closeout Statemant on SOFIA Observatory that NASA plans to shut down later this year without a scientific review

Cosmic dust imaged by the airborne SOFIA observatory reveals a white dwarf eclipsing a variable star in a binary system.

A Jovial Surprise: SOFIA Airborne Telescope Observes Jupiter

Costly SOFIA Telescope Faces Termination after Years of Problems

NASA, Partner Decide to Conclude SOFIA Mission

Revealing Cosmic “Skeletons” – SOFIA Maps the First Magnetic Fields of a Galactic Bone in Their Entirety

NASA's SOFIA flying observatory would get the ax (again) in 2023 budget request