NASA's launch of "STEREO" will capture the first ever 3-D images of sun storms.

From Pad 17-B at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, NASA launched STEREO - a mission that will take the first 3-D pictures of our sun.

The Solar TErrestrial RElations Observatory, or STEREO, went up on a Boeing Delta II rocket on October 25, 2006. In December 2006 and January 2007, the two crafts on board will separate, and each will be directed to its own orbit. The two orbits will be like eyes, giving the resulting images depth perception and details that have never before been seen.

Another first, STEREO will focus on a specific type of sun storm called coronal mass ejections: "violent and mysterious eruptions that hurl tons of the sun's atmosphere into space and trigger severe magnetic storms when they collide with Earth's magnetosphere."¹

Coronal mass ejections and other solar disruptions affect our earth's ground communications, pipelines, some military systems, and aviation navigation. Astronauts can be caught in a deadly rain of radiation if they are not warned of an impending sun storm. Satellites can be pushed out of orbit, and on-board computer chips can be damaged. The March 1989 power grid outage was caused by a solar blast, and affected at least 200 different electrical components in six U.S. states. The need for more information about solar flare-ups is urgent.

STEREO will be in orbit for two years, taking 3-D measurements of the sun, recording the speeds of solar winds, and ultimately revealing the origins of coronal mass ejections.

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October 29, 2006

¹NASA

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