The STEREO space-based observatories have given us the first view of the entire sun on February 6, 2011 and when coupled with the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), will give us complete views of the sun's entire surface and atmosphere.
More: http://www.space.com/10781-sun-stereo.html (http://www.space.com/10781-sun-stereo.html)
QuoteThe STEREO space-based observatories have given us the first view of the entire sun
Not quite technically true, as the sun rotates every 25-days, (well 25 at the centre and 35 at the poles),
every 13 days you would be seeing the other side of the sun,
Me thinks they should have said,
The STEREO space-based observatories have given us the first view of the entire sun in one hit. :cheesy: ;)
Mac
If the stereo observatories are ming apart (in our orbit) and have already reached the opposite sides of the Sun, it won't be more than a few years before they have gone all the way round and come back to Earth. So what happens then?
Captured by Earth's gravity and orbit Earth?
Collide with Earth?
Or are they scheduled to make a controlled landing maybe?
I remember Lucie Green talking about them, but had not realised the were going to get so far apart.
Carole
Quote from: Carole
If the stereo observatories are ming apart (in our orbit) and have already reached the opposite sides of the Sun, it won't be more than a few years before they have gone all the way round and come back to Earth. So what happens then?
Captured by Earth's gravity and orbit Earth?
Ming?
One is in a (faster) orbit inside earth's orbit. The other is in (slower) orbit outside earth's.
According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STEREO
"In 2015, contact will be lost for several months when the STEREO spacecraft pass behind the Sun. They will then start to approach Earth again, with closest approach sometime in 2023. They will not be recaptured into Earth orbit."
QuoteMing?
Thanks Mark, yes sorry - Ming was a typo and should have read
moving.
I just recalled the stereo observatories were moving ahead and behind in Earth's orbit, but thinking about it, yes that makes sense, according to the laws of planetary motion, if one is going faster it will be in a smaller orbit (closer to the Sun) and the one going slower will be further away from the Sun.
VERY interesting project.
Carole