Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

NASA Releases First 3D Images of the Sun

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the break-out-the-glasses dept.

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."

10 of 80 comments (clear)

  1. I was always taught not to look at the sun... by zcomuto · · Score: 2

    even through glasses, but are we allowed to look at the sun through 3D glasses?

    1. Re:I was always taught not to look at the sun... by Concerned+Onlooker · · Score: 5, Funny

      My eyes! The 3D glasses, they do nothing!

      --
      http://www.rootstrikers.org/
  2. Not first in 3D, by a long shot by Sockatume · · Score: 5, Informative

    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?
  3. Re:You missed the real headline by Stooshie · · Score: 2

    Actually, my guess is it will be an oblate spheroid.

    --
    America, Home of the Brave. ... .and the Squaw.
  4. Flat sun by grimJester · · Score: 2

    Anyone can see the sun is a circle. Teach the controversy!

  5. 2012 prevented! by gsslay · · Score: 2

    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!

  6. NASA finds: by xMrFishx · · Score: 2

    That the sun is quite hot, and there are no aliens hiding behind it. Of course, they forgot to put cameras watching the cameras.

  7. Pictures of the sun? by Chapter80 · · Score: 2

    Whose bright idea was this?

  8. Re:Feasibility of satellites in North / South plac by MightyYar · · Score: 3, Informative

    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.
  9. Re:So all this time... by jo_ham · · Score: 2

    I think you'll find it's a miasma of incandescent plasma.