The View from Stereo Ahead
Credit: Stereo Project, NASA
Explanation:
On December 22nd, at 0022 Universal Time the Sun reached its southernmost point in Earth's sky marking the final season change for the year 2006. In celebration of the Solstice, consider these images of the Sun from an extreme ultraviolet telescope onboard the Stereo Ahead spacecraft. Recorded on December 4th, Stereo's first day of imaging, each false-color view highlights atomic emission in different temperature regimes of the upper solar atmosphere; 2 million kelvins in yellow, 1.5 million in green, 1 million, in blue and 60 to 80 thousand in red. The Stereo Mission will place twin spacecraft, launched together in October, into different solar orbits to conduct a three dimensional exploration of the Sun and the solar environment. After completing lunar swingby maneuvers, the A spacecraft is intended to orbit the Sun "Ahead" of planet Earth, and the B spacecraft "Behind".
說明:
十二月二十二日， 世界時間(Universal Time)零時二時二分，太陽位於地球天空的最南端，代表 2006年的冬至，北半球晝最短，夜也最長。 為了慶祝冬至(Solstice)，利用 Stereo Ahead 衛星上的極紫外光望遠鏡拍攝 這些影像。 這是Stereo第一次拍攝影像，紀錄於12月4日，每個假色代表在不同溫度的太陽大氣層下原子發光，兩百萬度是黃色，一百五十萬度是綠色，一百萬度是藍色，六到八萬是紅色。 這個任務稱為 Stereo (Solar TErrestrial RElations Observatory) Mission，將會安置在兩個衛星上，在十月一起發射並進入不同的太陽軌道，執行三維太陽的探索及實驗。 在完成利用月亮彈射的動作(lunar swingby maneuvers)，一顆衛星正在前往地球前的太陽軌道，另一顆則在地球後的軌道。
資料來源: Scientific American
Department of Physics, NCKU
