* Astronomy

Blobrana · L

RE: STEREO satellite

Blobrana · L

T minus 15 minutes and holding

Blobrana · L

T minus 19 minutes

Weather conditions are still good for launch

Blobrana · L

T minus 26 minutes

All systems are "go" for Launch

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Blobrana · L

T minus 30 minutes

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Blobrana · L

T minus 36 minutes

Loading of the Delta 2 rocket's first stage liquid oxygen (LOX) tank has finished.

Blobrana · L

T minus 42 minutes

Weather conditions are go for launch.

Blobrana · L

T minus 50 minutes

Blobrana · L

STEREO is scheduled to launch at 00:38 October 26.
(The launch window is 0038-0053 GMT.)

Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs) are large clouds of gas ejected into space by the Sun. Violent eruptions with temperatures upwards of two-million degrees and travelling anywhere from 50 to 3,000 kilometres per second, CMEs are known to cause geomagnetic storms that can present hazards for satellites, radio communications and power systems.
Researchers have already learned much about CMEs from instruments such as the Naval Research Laboratory's Large Angle Spectrometric Coronagraph (LASCO) experiment on the NASA/European Space Agency's Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO), but now scientists will use NASA's new Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO) to obtain new and unprecedented views of the solar corona. STEREO is a two-year mission scheduled to launch in October 2006 that will use two nearly identical observatories to provide 3-D measurements of the Sun to study the nature of CMEs.

What sets a CME in motion? How do CMEs accelerate? How do they cause space weather disturbances? These are some of the fundamental questions that an international team of investigators led by NRL hope to answer with a new suite of remote sensing instruments, which make up the Sun-Earth Connection Coronal and Heliospheric Investigation (SECCHI). SECCHI will observe CMEs as they form at the Sun and then follow them as they travel through the corona and interplanetary space.

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Blobrana · L

In outer space as on Earth, real estate is all location, location, location. That's particularly true for the twin spacecraft of NASA's STEREO mission, which will be positioned far apart in space to give the first binocular, or 3-D, view of the sun. Set for launch tomorrow (Oct. 25, 2006), STEREO aims to learn more about the causes of spectacular eruptions of hot, magnetic bubbles of gas thrown off by the sun and how to identify those that are headed toward Earth, where they can disrupt power grids and communications. On board are University-designed and built instruments to search for clues to how these explosions-the most powerful in the solar system-happen.

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NASA's Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory mission will launch from SLC-17B, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, between 00:38-00:53 GMT on the 26th October.

-- Edited by Blobrana at 18:14, 2006-10-18