NASA’s new 3D images of the sun are bitchun

NASA announces that the twin Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO) spacecraft have produced the first stereoscopic 3D images of our sun. Snip from press release:

The new view will greatly aid scientists� ability to understand solar physics and thereby improve space weather forecasting.

“The improvement with STEREO’s 3-D view is like going from a regular X-ray to a 3-D CAT scan in the medical field,” said Dr. Michael Kaiser, STEREO Project Scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.

The STEREO spacecraft were launched October 25, 2006. On January 21 they completed a series of complex maneuvers, including flying by the moon, to position the spacecraft in their mission orbits. The two observatories are now orbiting the sun, one slightly ahead of Earth and one slightly behind, separating from each other by approximately 45 degrees per year. Just as the slight offset between a person�s eyes provides depth perception, the separation of spacecraft allow 3-D images of the sun.