[Slate]
Well space weather is a description of solar storms
huge eruptions that happen on the sun. And these eruptions send out massive amounts of
energy and material out through the entire solar system. And sometimes they impact
the Earth. And when they do we get all kinds of amazing things like the aurora and
the northern and southern lights. But these events are electromagnetic
in nature so they interact with our technology and not always in a good way.
So it's really important for us to understand space weather so we can reduce and
limit the amount of impact, detrimental impact that these phenomena
have on our technology. But in addition to that sometimes they can put out huge bursts
of radiation - very high energy particles which are dangerous to astronauts
and ultimately to travelers to someplace like Mars. So in addition to understanding
impact on our technology, we want to make it safer for space travelers both around
the Earth and through the whole solar system.
[slate] Well before STEREO,
before 10 years ago, we were only looking at the sun head-on.
So when something erupted from the sun traveling towards the Earth, we saw it in
a limited field of view. It's very difficult to see how big it is, see the structure and
see how fast it is. But once we launched the twin STEREO spacecraft
we then now had a side view and even a back view of the sun. So this gave us a whole new perspective,
two different additional view points that allowed us to much better
see how these eruptions form on the sun, how they leave the sun
travel through the solar system and how fast they are. And that is really critical
to understanding space weather and its impact in a way that we were never able to
do before.
[Slate] Well a total solar eclipse is a really
exciting time. It's the first - in the past it was the first time that humans
were able to see this wispy outer part of the sun's atmosphere
called the corona. Because it is such a faint structure millions
of times fainter than the sun's disk, we can only see it when the moon completely blocks the sun out.
And the reason that is really important is that is the area where all the action
is happening. Where all the solar eruptions are forming, where they are releasing all this stuff
out into the solar system. So this is a unique opportunity because nature
allows us to see this part of the sun's atmosphere in a way that even with our current technology
we're not quite able to see as well.
[Slate]
Yeah so in a couple of years we're going to be launching Solar Probe Plus. For the first time
we're sending a spacecraft all the way to the sun. Pretty amazing thing.
And what's so cool about it is right now when we look at the sun, the sun's atmosphere
this really important area called the corona, we're seeing it from a distance. We can
measure things coming off, but we're not doing this right there at the spot where it's happening.
So we are in some aspects going to fly through the cloud tops so to speak
and scoop up pieces of the sun's atmosphere, measure it at the source.
This is going to be a unique, an amazing opportunity to see
the important area of the sun in a way we've never, ever seen before. And in addition
it's a really engineering marvel to send a spacecraft to this unbelievably harsh
environment and to take these unique scientific measurements.
[Slate]
Well all spacecraft experience interference from the sun. It's incredibly bright.
It puts out light in all the different wavelengths including things like radio that we're
communicating a spacecraft with. But normally that time of
noise created by the sun is very limited. But for STEREO once we traveled
all the way back around the sun and we're trying to look past the sun to the spacecraft,
we have a period of about three months when there was too much interference to really
communicate with the spacecraft. So during that time we were not in contact with STEREO.
But what happened, once we passed that three month period, the STEREO
B spacecraft, one of the two, was still not connecting with us. We were not
able to get signals from it. So it's only been recently, almost 24 months
since that time that we were finally able to start communicating with the
B spacecraft. [Slate]
[Slate] Well STEREO has really, really
revolutionized the way we see the sun. Because again we're seeing it
multiple perspectives. I mean life is 3D, life is not just one direction. And so
STEREO finally gave us this amazing view, holistic
full view of the sun. So that in itself is scientifically fantastic.
Something brand new. But on top of that, STEREO was a two year mission
and it's lasted for 10 years. So not only is it a scientific marvel,
it's an engineering marvel. And so that's one of the exciting things being a
part of a mission like that. We're getting to explore and see new science
and also for me as a scientist to see my colleagues, the engineers, get excited about
being able to stretch the limits of what they can do with spacecraft.
And you know in some ways the sky is the limit is what you're going to see out of NASA
continuing from now into the future.
[Slate] You can find out more about
STEREO, Solar Probe Plus and other solar and heliophysics
missions by going to www.nasa.gov/sunearth.