CNN Indonesia
Friday, 11 Aug 2023 19:21 WIB
1. Spacecraft Comes to Earth After 17 Years of ‘Chasing’ the Sun 2. Monitoring Solar Eruptions from a Close Distance
Illustration of the STEREO-A spacecraft, si
Jakarta, CNN Indonesia —
The “hunting” spacecraft Sun, STEREO-A will visit Earth on Saturday (12/8). This was the first visit by an aircraft belonging to the United States Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to Earth after 17 years orbiting the Sun.
The arrival of STEREO-A to Earth will present a special opportunity for the spacecraft to collaborate with NASA’s near-Earth missions and uncover new insights about the closest star to planet Earth.
STEREO (Solar TERrestrial RElations Observatory) launched on October 25, 2006, from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. STEREO consists of two space probes, namely STEREO-A which is in front and STEREO-B behind, both of which map an Earth-like orbit around the Sun.
In the first years after launch, the spacecraft achieved its ultimate goal of providing the first stereoscopic, or multi-perspective, view of our nearest star.
Then, on February 6, 2011, the mission accomplished another important milestone, STEREO-A and -B achieved a 180 degree separation in their orbits and for the first time, humans were able to see the Sun as a complete sphere.
“Before, we were tied to the Sun-Earth line, we only saw one side of the Sun at a time. STEREO breaks that bond and gives us a view of the Sun as a three-dimensional object,” said Lika Guhathakurta, STEREO program scientist, citing the official website NASAFriday (11/8).
On August 12, 2023, STEREO-A’s distance from Earth increases to one full revolution when the spacecraft “circles” Earth in its orbit around the Sun. In the weeks before and after the STEREO-A flyby, scientists had the opportunity to ask a number of questions that mission normally couldn’t answer.
3D Sun Appearance
During its traverse of Earth, STEREO-A will converge views for stereoscopic vision. Stereoscopic vision allows NASA to obtain 3-dimensional (3D) information from 2-dimensional or flat images.
This is how two eyeballs, seeing the world from different locations, create the perception of depth. The brain compares the images from each eye, and slight differences between the images reveal which object is closer or farther away.
STEREO-A makes this 3D view possible by combining its views with NASA’s Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) and NASA’s European Space Agency and Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO). STEREO-A’s distance from Earth changes as it passes, optimizing stereo vision for features of the Sun at different times. It’s as if scientists are adjusting the focus of a telescope millions of kilometers wide.
The STEREO scientists seized the opportunity to make much needed measurements. They identified active regions, regions of magnetic complexes that underlie sunspots, and hoped to gain 3D information about their structure that is usually lost in 2D images. They will also test a new theory that coronal circles — the giant curvatures often seen in close-up images of the Sun — aren’t what they appear.
“There is a recent notion that the coronal circles may just be an optical illusion,” said Terry Kucera, STEREO project scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.
Some researchers argue that the limited viewing angle makes the Sun appear to have a shape that they don’t actually have. “If you look at it from different points of view, it becomes clearer,” added Kucera.
Close Monitoring of Solar Eruptions
READ THE NEXT PAGE
2023-08-11 12:21:00
#Spaceship #Earth #Years #Chasing #Sun
