Summary

Description	Since February 2011, the two spacecraft of NASA's STEREO mission have been providing scientists with unprecedented views of the far side of the sun. Placed in an orbit that allows their perspective to changed over the eight years since their launch in 2008 (ck), the satellites are about to enter a new phase of their journey: a time when the bright light and heat of the sun will stand in the way of sending data back to Earth. This phase is a direct result of the orbits for STEREO, which is short for the Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory. The spacecraft travel at different speeds. This means that over time, the satellites become increasingly out of sync, appearing from Earth's perspective to drift farther apart, able to observe first the sides and eventually the far side of the sun. For the first time ever, thanks to STEREO and near-Earth solar telescopes such as NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory the human race has had its first 360-degree view of the sun. The orbits have continu
Date	2014-07-03
Source	images.nasa.gov

Licensing

Public Domain (US Government Work)