Stereoscopic vision is what’s behind 3D movies, as two slightly offset images are overlaid, and red-blue 3D glasses ensure each eye perceives only one of the images. Your brain compares the images from each eye, and the slight differences between those images reveal which objects are closer or farther away. It’s how two eyeballs, looking out at the world from offset locations, create depth perception. Stereoscopic vision allows us to extract 3D information from two-dimensional, or flat, images. In the few weeks before and after STEREO-A’s flyby, scientists are seizing the opportunity to ask questions normally beyond the mission’s reach.ĭuring the Earth flyby, STEREO-A will once again do something it used to do with its twin in the early years: combine views to achieve stereoscopic vision. 12, 2023, STEREO-A’s lead on Earth has grown to one full revolution as the spacecraft “laps” us in our orbit around the Sun. However, STEREO-A continues its journey, capturing solar views unavailable from Earth. The mission accomplished many other scientific feats over the years, and researchers studied both spacecraft views until 2014, when mission control lost contact with STEREO-B after a planned reset. These three distinct viewpoints allowed scientists to capture almost the entire sun at once, with only a small gap in data. 31, 2011, with simultaneous views from both of NASA’s STEREO spacecraft and NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory. This composite view shows the Sun as it appeared on Jan. “STEREO broke that tether and gave us a view of the Sun as a three-dimensional object.” “Prior to that we were ‘tethered’ to the Sun-Earth line – we only saw one side of the Sun at a time,” said Lika Guhathakurta, STEREO program scientist at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C. For the first time, humanity saw our Sun as a complete sphere. 6, 2011, the mission achieved another landmark: STEREO-A and -B reached a 180-degree separation in their orbits. STEREO-A (for “Ahead”) advanced its lead on Earth as STEREO-B (for “Behind”) lagged behind, both charting Earth-like orbits around the Sun.ĭuring the first years after launch, the dual-spacecraft mission achieved its landmark goal: providing the first stereoscopic, or multiple-perspective, view of our closest star. 25, 2006, from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. The twin STEREO (Solar TErrestrial RElations Observatory) spacecraft launched on Oct. The crossing comes one day before Venus passes between the Sun and Earth, though the planet will appear 10 degrees below the Sun from Earth's view and outside of STEREO-A's field of view.Ĭredits: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/Scientific Visualization Studio/Tom Bridgman NASA’s STEREO-A spacecraft will cross the Sun-Earth line on Aug. The visit home brings a special chance for the spacecraft to collaborate with NASA missions near Earth and reveal new insights into our closest star. 12, 2023, NASA’s STEREO-A spacecraft will pass between the Sun and Earth, marking the first Earth flyby of the nearly 17-year-old mission.
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