Oct 26 2006
From The Space Library
NASA launched the Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO) mission from Cape Canaveral in Florida at 00:52 (UT). The STEREO mission consisted of two nearly identical observatories that would orbit the Sun, collecting data that scientists could use to predict the arrival of coronal mass ejections (CMEs) on Earth. CMEs, solar eruptions of matter, can disrupt satellites and power grids on Earth. NASA had designed the two spacecraft to conduct stereographic imaging of the Sun and its emissions, in order to trace the flow of energy and matter from the Sun to Earth. One spacecraft, STEREO-A (Ahead), would orbit the Sun ahead of Earth, while the other, STEREO-B(Behind), would orbit the Sun behind Earth. Scientists would be able to use the observatories’ three-dimensional images of CMEs to predict with accuracy the arrival times of CMEs on Earth.
Spacewarn Bulletin, no. 636; NASA, “STEREO: Studying the Sun in 3-D,” 17 February 2010, http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/stereo/main/index.html (accessed 2 April 2010).
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