

First-ever images of the entire Sun - geuis
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/stereo/news/entire-sun.html

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colomon
"This is a big moment in solar physics," says Vourlidas. "STEREO has revealed
the sun as it really is--a sphere of hot plasma and intricately woven magnetic
fields."

Is it just me, or does that sound suspiciously like it is from an Onion
article? I mean, it's very cool (and presumably useful) to have a full-time
360 view of the sun. But I'm pretty sure the idea the sun is a sphere of hot
plasma is not startlingly new information...

~~~
mcantor
Besides; everyone knows that the sun is a mass of incandescent gas. (A
gigantic nuclear furnace.)

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bena
Actually, it's a miasma of incandescent plasma
(<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLkGSV9WDMA>).

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dotBen
I was sad at how low-res and JPG'y the images were.

I wish NASA would release versions in whatever the native
dimensions/resolutions they are receiving the image data back in.

~~~
novas0x2a
You do not really want the raw data (it generally looks something like
this[1], from the COR telescope, "FITS" format[2]. Warning: mix of ascii and
binary). Anyway, this[3] links to where they are putting the raw and first-
order-derived mission data they have released so far (if you want more of what
you saw, you probably want SECCHI). And here[4] is an example of said derived
data. And this[5] seems to be where they seem to be putting highlighted
derived products for public outreach.

Generally, there is very little money and little expertise for polished public
outreach efforts (they are scientists, not web developers, after all). There
is a good chance the scientists behind [3] are doing some of it in their
"spare" time. Feel free to drop them an email and let them know it is
appreciated :)

1)
[http://sharpp.nrl.navy.mil//postflight/lz/L0/a/seq/cor1/2011...](http://sharpp.nrl.navy.mil//postflight/lz/L0/a/seq/cor1/20110102//20110102_000500_s4c1A.fts)

2) <http://fits.gsfc.nasa.gov/>

3) <http://stereo-ssc.nascom.nasa.gov/data.shtml>

4)
[http://cdaw.gsfc.nasa.gov/movie/make_javamovie.php?img1=stb_...](http://cdaw.gsfc.nasa.gov/movie/make_javamovie.php?img1=stb_e304&img2=sta_e304&stime=20110101_0000&etime=20110102_0000))

5) <http://stereo.gsfc.nasa.gov/gallery/gallery.shtml>

~~~
ugh
The image in the article is also not really low-res. As far as I can see
Stereo’s CCDs have a resolution of 2048x2048, the image in the press release
is 1280x720, that’s not exactly a substantial reduction (also considering that
the two images from the two spacecraft were heavily distorted to create this
side-view of the sun).

By the way, I found this wiki about processing and analyzing SECCHI’s images,
if you wanted to you could presumably learn about it and start processing
images on your own:
[http://secchi.nrl.navy.mil/wiki/pmwiki.php?n=Main.DataProces...](http://secchi.nrl.navy.mil/wiki/pmwiki.php?n=Main.DataProcessingAndAnalysis)

~~~
novas0x2a
If you install CFITSIO[1], you can rebuild GDAL with FITS support. GDAL is the
crazy-format swiss army knife. Some caveats[2] apply, though.

1)
[http://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/software/fitsio/fitsio.htm...](http://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/software/fitsio/fitsio.html)

2) <http://www.gdal.org/frmt_various.html#FITS>

------
JohnnyBrown
Step one to our very own Dyson Sphere ...

~~~
stettberger
Next step is a Ringworld?

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Groxx
Am I the only one who sees this and wonders why there's such a large
discrepancy between the right and left halves? Were they taken days / weeks /
months apart or something? It kind of defeats the point of "stereo" to do so.

Specifically, why is that white splotch in such a radically different location
(remember, diameter of the sun as Google states it is 1,391,000 km, that's
gotta be near 100,000 km difference).

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zacharycohn
I read this article this morning. I wonder why they didn't launch one
satellite into Orbit A, wait 6 months[1], then launch the second satellite
into Orbit A, but from the other side of the sun. Then, once they maneuvered
into position, we'd have satellites stationed on both sides permanently.

It seems like that would be a lot faster, and would also ensure we can
maintain our full view of the sun for a long period of time.

[1]Or however long it would take to get to the opposite side of the sun,
accounting for the first satellite's movements.

~~~
civilian
The stereos aren't staying in place, they start in the same orbit as Earth
(and thus, with the same orbital speed). So we need to gently speed them up
and slow them down. It would be inefficient to have the first probe burn a lot
of fuel to stop, burn some fuel so it won't get pulled into the sun, and then
6 months later burn some fuel to resume orbit.

~~~
phirephly
What he's saying is gently slow one down, then six months later gently slow
down another. Then there will always be two opposing sats.

Only reason I can think of is that there is either other experiments on-board
that they need to recover (solar wind collectors, etc), or that they were both
taken up in the same launch vehicle, which would be the lion's share of the
expense of this experiment.

~~~
mturmon
Nope, you're not understanding the issue.

If you launch the first sat into Orbit A, it still has the orbital velocity of
the Earth. Unless you can slow the first sat down a _lot_ , it will continue
to track along in about the same place as the Earth.

Waiting 6 months will accomplish very little in that case. The reason is, in 6
months, the Earth and the first sat will be in nearly the same place.

The key concept is known as "delta-v"
(<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delta-v>). It's the change-in-velocity allowed
by a certain amount of fuel. Here's some more on the STEREO mission
trajectory: <http://stereo.gsfc.nasa.gov/orbit.shtml> It's worth it to watch
the movie.

Gravity assist can help a lot, but it also takes a lot of time.

~~~
phirephly
Agreed. I missed it. You'd probably have to wait something like 8 years for a
long-term solution. With American ADD, wouldn't count on it actually
happening.

~~~
mturmon
Also, the people who design the missions eventually get old and retire. At
some point, they have to take the human time scale into account.

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Joakal
Humanity Accomplishment: Dyson sphere sensor.

Next: Dyson sphere itself?

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ajray
I actually debated posting this earlier today and decided against it (wasn't
sure it was HN-appropriate). I'm a newbie so I'm learning every day.

