NASA’s Stereo-A Spacecraft to Experience Solar Eruption Up Close

After 17 years of observing the Sun, the NASA spacecraft known as STEREO-A is finally returning to Earth. However, during its journey, it will pass through a solar storm and transmit important data back to help us understand our nearest star. This means that STEREO-A will not only capture visual information as it passes by Earth but also experience the physical effects, potentially leading to significant scientific breakthroughs.

To put things into perspective, the Sun regularly spews out so-called coronal mass ejections (CMEs). This is a massive amount of solar material that has the power to disrupt satellites, radio communications, and even knock out the power grid back on Earth. The STEREO-A spacecraft will now allow scientists to study the phenomenon better from the inside, as it will be able to travel inside the spacecraft spit out by the Sun.

Given that CMEs are extremely dangerous to Earth, there is still much to learn about them. Now STEREO-A offers a great opportunity, as the CME is likely to encounter it on its way to Earth. Yes, it is actually inside CME.

How important is it? Currently, the knowledge is not as deep as it should be. “It’s like the parable of the blind men and the elephant – the one who feels the legs says ‘it’s like a tree trunk,’ and the one who feels the tail says ‘it’s like a snake,'” said principal investigator Toni Galvin. one of STEREO-A’s of instruments.

How it works: NASA explains

When solar material, known as a coronal mass ejection, or CME, hits Earth, it can disrupt satellite and radio signals or even cause power surges in our power grids.

Or it may have no effect at all. It all depends on the magnetic field inside it, which can change dramatically during the 93 million miles it travels to Earth.

NASA says that to understand how a CME’s magnetic field evolves on its way to Earth, scientists build computer models of these solar flares and update them with each new spacecraft observation. But data from a single spacecraft can only tell us so much.

In the months before and after STEREO-A’s flyby, all Earth-bound CMEs will pass over STEREO-A and other near-Earth spacecraft, giving scientists much-needed multipoint measurements of the CME’s interior.