First 3-D Photos of Sun Released

by Brian A Kennedy | April 24, 2007 at 04:33 am

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NASA released the first 3-D images of the sun, taken from two aircraft simultaneously, one slightly ahead of the Earth and the other slightly behind. Check out NASA's site for the pics, although you'll need a pair of 3-D glasses to properly appreciate them (no kidding! That's what the site says).

STEREO program scientist Madhulika Guhathakurta said scientists have until now been "modeling in the dark" when it came to predicting solar storms. The twin spacecraft give researchers the vantage point to "provide the observations needed to validate the models."

The sun has been relatively quiet since the launch, so STEREO scientists have not predicted the arrival of any storms yet, Plunkett said.

The eruptions — also called solar flares — typically blow a billion tons of the sun's atmosphere into space at a speed of 1 million mph. Besides power and communications problems, the phenomenon is responsible for the northern lights, or aurora borealis, the luminous display of lights seen in the upper latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere.

STEREO scientist Michael Kaiser said scientists would like to be able to predict solar disturbances, just as meteorologists are able to predict hurricane formation.

"We'd like to do the same thing with solar storms," Kaiser said. "We aren't quite there yet."