NASA obtains first 3-D Sun pictures from STEREO

NASA obtains first 3-D Sun pictures from STEREO
by Bithika Khargarhia, April 24, 2007

NASA on Monday released the first three-dimensional (3-D) images of the sun developed from data transmitted by the twin Solar TErrestrial RElations Observatories, known as STEREO, enabling scientists, for the first time, to see structures in the sun's atmosphere in three dimensions thus helping them to track solar storms more accurately.

STEREO, a pair of solar probes, was launched on a Boeing-built Delta rocket, which lifted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida on October 25, 2006 to better understand and predict solar eruptions by exploring the sun for the first time in three dimensions. Nearly 90 minutes after the take off, the two spacecraft split off from their launch vehicle and began their respective paths into orbit, one ahead of Earth in its orbit and the other trailing behind.

The STEREO mission is the first to view the sun from two separate vantage points outside Earth's orbit. The pictures, generated by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, will significantly aid scientists' ability to understand solar physics and thereby improve space weather forecasting.

The team of experts created the images from data obtained by the two near-identical observatories that are now orbiting the sun to monitor its Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs). From the perspective of the Sun, the spacecrafts are orbiting 45 degrees apart, providing enough distance to work like a pair of human eyes that can view in three dimensions.

The eruptions, called coronal mass ejections, are a key source of the magnetic disruptions on Earth and are a major component of space weather. These can greatly effect satellite operations, can shut down communications and navigational satellites, affect aircraft and disrupt electricity supplies as billions of tonnes of charged particles are sent streaming into space.

Now, with the breakthrough images obtained from STEREO mission that provide 3-D measurements of the sun and its flow of energy, the science experts would be able to study the nature of coronal mass ejections (CMEs), outbursts that can affect Earth, astronauts and satellites, and why they happen.

"The improvement with Stereo's 3D view is like going from a regular X-ray to a 3D CAT scan in the medical field," said Dr Mike Kaiser, the Stereo project scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. "The main purpose of STEREO is to study solar storms. The sun has been doing solar storms for billions of years, with nobody really caring about until recently.''

Designed and built by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL), the $520 million project, STEREO mission uses two nearly identical observatories that act like a pair of human eyes, each picking up data that is correlated with information from observatories on the ground and in low-Earth orbit.

Loaded with scientific instruments, the twin spacecraft, each about the size of a golf cart and weighing some 620km, are measuring solar eruptions from their source, through space and all the way to the point at which they affect Earth's atmosphere.

Scientists of four European countries are participating in the two-year mission: Belgium, Britain, France and Germany. They hope the STEREO mission will glean insight into solar activities such as coronal mass ejections (CMEs), the most violent explosions in the solar system.

The mission is being managed by NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. APL will maintain command and control of the observatories throughout the mission, while NASA tracks and receives the data, determines the orbit of the satellites, and coordinates the science results.

Source : NASA obtains first 3-D Sun pictures from STEREO in TheMoneyTimes.com