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Stereo View of the Sun

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the fly-on-the-wall dept.

Roland Piquepaille writes "NASA's STEREO mission will be launched in 2006 with the goal of imaging the sun and the solar winds in 3-D. According to NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center and to the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL), two identical spacecrafts will be placed in different orbits to provide us with 'stereo' views of the Sun. After the launch in Spring 2006, the two observatories will be separated after a couple of months, one orbiting ahead of the Earth, and the other staying behind. So we should be able to see the Sun in 3-D in less than a year."

8 of 158 comments (clear)

  1. Can't we do that already? by johndierks · · Score: 5, Funny

    Can't I see the sun in 3-D right now, by looking out the window?

    1. Re:Can't we do that already? by bizard · · Score: 5, Informative
      Not to spoil a good joke, but no. Your eyes aren't far enough apart to get stereo vision past about 18 feet. You can move your head around to improve that (and your brain does a good job of faking it), but not good enough for stereo vision at 1au.

      Another interesting part of the mission is that over a period of several years, the stereo craft will actually get further away from earth giving us an ever changing view. I just saw a talk at the Berkeley SSL by one of the scientists about the new solar weather modeling they will be able to do with it.

    2. Re:Can't we do that already? by bizard · · Score: 5, Funny
      better when your head is the size of a planet.

      yeah, but then people give you menial tasks like escorting humans around and opening doors...it all gets very depressing

  2. Stereo by steveo777 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Wait, stereo is only two channels. Wouldn't Dolby make more sense?

    --
    This sig isn't original enough, it's time to come up with something witty...
  3. Re:Looks like... by Mayhem178 · · Score: 5, Funny

    They didn't turn down the detail...someone turned up the contrast! I've been staring for 3 hours now and all I see is a big white dot!

    Whoa, if I look away all I see is a big black dot. Damn you, you who messes with the contrast in my head!

    --

    "You will pay for your lack of vision..." - Emperor Palpatine to Ray Charles

  4. somewhat current sun pic by fak3r · · Score: 5, Interesting

    This image of 1,500,000C gas in the Sun's thin, outer atmosphere (corona) was taken March 13, 1996 by the Extreme Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope onboard the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) spacecraft. Every feature in the image traces magnetic field structures. Because of the high quality instrument, more of the suttle and detail magnetic features can be seen than ever before. (Courtesy ESA/NASA)

    http://www.solarviews.com/raw/sun/eitfexii.jpg

    Freaky looking, but damn cool!

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    fak3r.com
  5. Re: Do Not Stare Into Sun With Remaining Good Eye by GillBates0 · · Score: 5, Funny

    And good luck trying to view the "stereo view" with the one remaining eye.

    --
    An Indian-American Hindu committed to non-violent thought/speech/action alarmed by the global explosion of radical Islam
  6. Re:Don't look at the Sun! by Dr.+Zowie · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Ah, jeez, that old thing. Looking at an eclipse is quite a different affair than looking just at the Sun. Looking directly at the Sun with your naked eye is dazzling and maybe a little stupid, but it won't make you go blind: the human eye's minimum pupil size is coincidentally just small enough to handle the energy flux (which makes sense in the context of evolution). Eclipses trigger a bug in the eye's auto-aperture system, so that your pupil can end up wide open as you look at the mostly-eclipsed Sun. That can 'burn' pinholes in your retina.