NASA celebrates 10 years of studying the sun using Stereo A and Stereo B to unravel the secrets it beholds.
The Sun is the largest object in our solar system. It contains 99.8 percent of the total mass of the Solar System. There are many stars like our star, which makes our star ordinary. There are stars smaller and bigger than our sun, Nine Planets reported.Eric Christian, NASA astrophysicist, explained that until they had images from Stereos they had flat images. They said that they couldn't see solar flares and ribbons.
Stereo A and Stereo B are Solar Terrestrial Relations probes that follows Earth's orbit. They provide stereoscopic view of the sun, Wired reported. They also reported that to date, Stereo A is the only probe that's working. Stereo B broke two years ago but NASA still consider it a success.
They explained that Stereo B helped them confirm that solar wind is just a drifting solar plasma. Solar Winds happens when the plasma acts like a gas that streams out to fill the space that surrounds it. This is a forceful Coronal Mass Ejection. Coronal Mass Ejections are sun materials that leaves the sun at million miles an hour.
Alex Young, one of the researchers, explained that solar winds can be compared to a calm ocean while coronal mass ejections are the waves. He explained that Stereo gave them a better understanding of solar winds and the way they travel.
Young said that they could see the winds in detail. Aside from this, they could study solar energy particles through Stereo.They found out that particles interact with magnetic field of the sun. They don't travel on a straight path, they move away from the sun.
They explained that they were surprised when they observed the particles with the help of the probes. They said that they will not be able to fully understand the particles' trajectory if not for the stereos.