NASA Satellites Will Improve Understanding of the Sun

NASA Satellites Will Improve Understanding of the Sun

NASA’s Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory mission will dramatically improve understanding of the powerful solar eruptions that can send more than a billion tons of the sun’s outer atmosphere hurtling into space.

The STEREO mission comprises two nearly identical spacecraft the size of golf carts, which are scheduled to launch on Aug. 31 aboard a Delta II rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla. Their observations will enable scientists to construct the first-ever three-dimensional views of the sun. These images will show the sun’s stormy environment and its effect on the inner solar system. The data are vital for understanding how the sun creates space weather.

During the two-year mission, the two spacecraft will explore the origin, evolution and interplanetary consequences of coronal mass ejections, some of the most violent explosions in our solar system. When directed at Earth, these billion-ton eruptions can produce spectacular aurora and disrupt satellites, radio communications and power systems. Energetic particles associated with these solar eruptions permeate the entire solar system and may be hazardous to spacecraft and astronauts.

“In terms of space-weather forecasting, we’re where weather forecasters were in the 1950s,” said Michael Kaiser, STEREO project scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. “They didn’t see hurricanes until the rain clouds were right above them. In our case, we can see storms leaving the sun, but we have to make guesses and use models to figure out if and when they will impact Earth.”

To obtain their unique stereo view of the sun, the two observatories must be placed in different orbits, where they are offset from each other and Earth. Spacecraft “A” will be in an orbit moving ahead of Earth, and “B” will lag behind, as the planet orbits the sun.

Read the complete Press Release