A composite 3-D image of the Sun.
Credit: NASA
WASHINGTON: Images of the Sun in three dimensions have been captured by NASA for the first time, allowing astronomers to study solar storms as never before.
The three-dimensional (3-D) images, released yesterday, were developed from data transmitted by the U.S. space agency's STEREO twin solar observatories, sent on a mission to better understand and predict solar eruptions.
The two-year Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO) mission is the first to view the sun from two separate vantage points outside Earth's orbit. The nearly identical satellites act like a pair of human eyes. They pick up data that is then correlated with information from observatories on the ground and in low-Earth orbit.
See 3-D images and videos of the Sun here on NASA's web site (3-D glasses required).
The spacecrafts "are in orbit around the Sun… and they are moving apart about 45° a year and starting now to be in position to actually start making stereographic measurements," said Michael Kaiser, STEREO project scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Centre in Maryland.
"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 them until recently," said Kaiser. But, electromagnetic storms can affect "our power system on the ground, and present a hazard to astronauts," he said.
NASA scientists want to be able to predict the effect of solar eruptions on the Earth as efficiently as meteorologists make forecasts based on weather data.
The spacecrafts, each about the size of a golf cart and weighing some 620 kg, were launched on their mission in October. Scientists of four European countries are also participating in the mission: Belgium, Britain, France and Germany.
The STEREO mission has an unprecedented "broadside" view of the entire relationship between the Sun and Earth, some 150 million km apart.
Scientists hope the mission will glean insight into solar activities such as coronal mass ejections (CMEs), the most violent explosions in the solar system. When aimed at Earth, these billion-tonne eruptions of the Sun's corona spew intense radiation, disrupting the Earth's environment and endangering astronauts and scientific spacecraft.
Information on the CMEs would improve planning for space missions as well as over-the-pole flights, satellite communications and video transmissions, said NASA.
