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NASA Releases First 3D Images of the Sun
mvar writes "On Feb. 6th, NASA's twin STEREO probes moved into position on opposite sides of the sun, and they are now beaming back uninterrupted images of the entire star—front and back. 'For the first time ever, we can watch solar activity in its full 3-dimensional glory,' says Angelos Vourlidas, a member of the STEREO science team at the Naval Research Lab in Washington, DC. NASA released a 'first light' 3D movie on, naturally, Super Bowl Sunday."
even through glasses, but are we allowed to look at the sun through 3D glasses?
STEREO, as the name suggests, has been broadcasting 3D images of the sun since it launched many, many years ago. the satellites had slightly (and increasingly) different viewpoints, which could then be combined to give a binocular view of the sun. The long-term mission was to put the satellites at opposite sides of the sun for continuous coverage of the surface, a position in which they cannot generate 3D images of it because their perspectives are completely exclusive. That is what has been achieved.
No kidding!!! What do you say at this point?
Thousands of schoolchildren are now blind, after looking at the sun to see how realistic the "3D" really was.
Actually, my guess is it will be an oblate spheroid.
America, Home of the Brave.
Anyone can see the sun is a circle. Teach the controversy!
I keep trying to cross my eyes, but I still don't see it.
Especially since, in 4 billion years, it will turn the planet into a crisp ember. Of course humans will probably have moved-on by then, but in 50 billion years ALL the stars will have burnt-out to dying red embers.
Then what do we do? "This..... all of this was for nothing." - sinclair, B5
Information wants to be expensive AND wants to be free. So you have Value vs. Cheap distribution fighting each other.
Why is it natural for NASA to release a 3D image of the Sun on Super Bowl Sunday?
In related news, the Super Bowl hit a record high of eight accused sexual predators on the field at the same time.
...with remaining eye.
At long last Planet X can be revealed!
If we can see all the way around the sun, Planet X can never hide behind it again, or sneak out from behind it when we're asleep and crash into the Earth. Thanks NASA!
How hard would it to get satellites seated above and below an object?
Since we tend to do things on a 2 dimensional plane when it comes to the solar system, the mention of 3D makes me wonder if it has been tried much, or if it is many times harder than it is easier, or cheaper, to stay in the standard plane of the solar system.
One reason i can think of is harder to get something seated because of gravity at the north and south poles of objects is a little wonky, at best.
Geosync is simple in comparison, but suffers the risk of being blasted by radiation due to no EM field protecting it. (less likely to get a N/S facing flare, if at all)
It would probably require much more maintenance to keep it in the same position.
If they were above and below, it could simplify communications between them, and it could lead to the start of a simpler deep space network since it just needs to look above or below, rather than hope the satellites orbiting are at the right area for receiving.
Of course, simpler in terms of sending and receiving, not setting it up initially, i expect.
are 3-D pics of Larry Ellison?
That the sun is quite hot, and there are no aliens hiding behind it. Of course, they forgot to put cameras watching the cameras.
Whose bright idea was this?
Its round!
...Google Maps?
4wdloop
How hard would it to get satellites seated above and below an object?
Very. You'd have to fight gravity with propulsion or they would fall into the object. A satellite has to orbit or it will fall into the planet.
You could get fancy and try to exploit another object's gravity and then occupy the Lagrangian points, but I can't think of a real-world example of where this would work at the poles.
If you used an extremely elliptical orbit, you could at least have a line-of-sight to a pole for a long period of time. Use two satellites and you could cover a pole full-time using an elliptical orbit.
W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
Avatar ignited a 3D movie craze, now everybody has to imitate James Cameron... even NASA! As for myself, I'll still be watching movies of the sun in 2D, thank you very much!
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
The sun was a sphere, not a cylinder? Damn.
Your courageous and selfless spelling corrections have made me a better person.
Extremely. Ulyseuss had to use Jupiter's gravity to slingshot it into a solar-polar orbit. It takes a lot more energy to put an object in such an orbit than current rockets can provide on their own.
Counterintuitive as it may be this is wrong. In order to 'fall' into the sun you have to slow down - remember that any object we launch already has earth's oribital velocity relative the sun. It takes more energy to reach Venus or (especially) Mercury than it takes to escape the solar system outright.
(eyeroll)
Yeah, thanks, I got that bit.
But why SUPER BOWL Sunday in particular. You savvy?
Now we can start looking for good landing sites.
I'm sure that some internet company will have sold off all the good bits long before the first possible mission can get there, like they are doing with the stars, and all the good bits will have been recorded in a book to be stored in the Library of Congress (and no where else).
Who would win this election: Andrew Weiner vs Andrew Weiner's weiner.
I don't need a 3d image of the sun because I stare at the real thing all day. Although I guess it is kind of cool because you can see the other side of the sun.
Or you could just wait 6 months.
You will note that the two camera's are strictly pointed at the sun. NASA doesn't want anyone to see what's behind the sun. With good reason actually, as you guys are obviously not at all ready for the knowledge that awaits there.
According to the artist's rendition, we can expect the sun to be partially in shadow... ;-P
http://www.ufopicture.org/soho_ufo_pictures.html
This was desperately needed because these pictures are crap.
Frankly, they look about as detailed as this: http://www.spaceshooter.com/games/screenshot.php?pid=34&shot=5
Flappinbooger isn't my real name
Or you could just wait 6 months.
No need for that. The Sun rotates on its axis just like the Earth does. The Sun's equator takes 24.5 days to rotate. At 26degrees North Latitude, where most of the sunspot activity takes place, the Sun rotates every 25.4 days. The difference is due to the Sun not being a solid body.
When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
doing this while still covering up the exsitence of Antichthon http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Counter-Earth. Mad Photoshop skills.
The Chinese have announced that they plan to go one further than the US and land a man on the sun,
When asked by the press how they would prevent the spacecraft and the person involved from melting
they answered: We have thought about that, We plan to do it at night.....
Reading comprehension fail?
MightyYar talks of parking satellites over the solar poles, which would indeed involve slowing down, in fact stopping entirely. And then you'd need a continuous, if low, thrust to support you against solar gravity, or you would indeed fall into the sun.
Of course, the going solution for this is just to let the sun support you -- heliostats could offer a very sweet platform for solar observation, and (eventually) a comms link to things on the far side of the sun, e.g. Mars. Still requires a hard rocket burn or a long time "sailing" to lose the Earth/Sun delta-V.
I'll wait for Google Sun
Yes, but when will they release pictures of the sun in Imax?
The press release was originally scheduled for Wednesday, so they'd have time to get the data down from the spacecraft, and generate the maps necessary for making the movies as if the camera were flying around the sun. Note at the bottom of the story:
Unfortunately, someone leaked to the press last week that the spacecraft would get 360 degree coverage, and so they moved up the press conference on Friday:
Build it, and they will come^Hplain.