NASA's STEREO mission got off to a spectacular start as the rocket carrying the twin satellites blazed through the starry sky after lifting off at 8:52 p.m. EDT from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla. Racing into space on the 12 flaming engines of a Boeing Delta II rocket, the spacecraft are on their way to investigating the origin of special solar storms erupting from the sun. Known as "coronal mass ejections," these storms travel at nearly 1 million mph and can knock out power on the ground. The rocket is delivering the STEREO spacecraft to opposite sides of Earth. There STEREO will map the structure of the storms in 3-D as they leave the sun and flow around the planet.
The Delta II rocket carrying the STEREO spacecraft lifts off from Launch Pad 17B. Credit: NASA
US space agency Nasa has launched two spacecraft that are expected to make the first 3D movies of the Sun. The Stereo mission will study violent eruptions from our parent star known as coronal mass ejections (CMEs). The eruptions create huge clouds of energetic particles that can trigger magnetic storms, disrupting power grids and air and satellite communications. The mission is expected to help researchers forecast magnetic storms - the worst aspects of "space weather".