STEREO Spacecraft Provides First Complete Image of Sun’s Far Side

[/caption]

Far out! This is the first complete image of the solar far side, the half of the sun invisible from Earth. Captured on June 1, 2011, the composite image was assembled from NASA’s two Solar TErrestrial RElations Observatory (STEREO) spacecraft. STEREO-Ahead’s data is shown on the left half of image and STEREO-Behind’s data on the right.

You may recall that the two STEREO spacecraft reached opposition (180 degree separation) on February 6 of this year and the science team released a “complete” 360 degree view of the Sun. However, a small part of the sun was inaccessible to their combined view until June 1. This image represents the first day when the entire far side could be seen.

The image is aligned so that solar north is directly up. The seam between the two images is inclined because the plane of Earth’s – and STEREO’s – orbit, known as the “ecliptic”, is inclined with respect to the sun’s axis of rotation. The data was collected by STEREO’s Extreme Ultraviolet Imagers in the SECCHI instrument suites.

The video below explains why seeing the entire Sun is helpful to scientists:

Source: PhysOrg

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy has been with Universe Today since 2004, and has published over 6,000 articles on space exploration, astronomy, science and technology. She is the author of two books: "Eight Years to the Moon: the History of the Apollo Missions," (2019) which shares the stories of 60 engineers and scientists who worked behind the scenes to make landing on the Moon possible; and "Incredible Stories from Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos" (2016) tells the stories of those who work on NASA's robotic missions to explore the Solar System and beyond. Follow Nancy on Twitter at https://twitter.com/Nancy_A and and Instagram at and https://www.instagram.com/nancyatkinson_ut/

Recent Posts

Here’s What We Know About Earth’s Temporary Mini-Moon

For a little over a month now, the Earth has been joined by a new…

46 minutes ago

New Study Suggests Black Holes Get their “Hair” from their Mothers

Despite decades of study, black holes are still one of the most puzzling objects in…

2 hours ago

Gaze at New Pictures of the Sun from Solar Orbiter

74 million kilometres is a huge distance from which to observe something. But 74 million…

2 hours ago

Are Fast Radio Bursts Caused by Interstellar Objects Crashing Into Neutron Stars?

Astronomers have only been aware of fast radio bursts for about two decades. These are…

7 hours ago

Here’s How to Weigh Gigantic Filaments of Dark Matter

How do you weigh one of the largest objects in the entire universe? Very carefully,…

9 hours ago

How Could Astronauts Call for Help from the Moon?

Exploring the Moon poses significant risks, with its extreme environment and hazardous terrain presenting numerous…

21 hours ago