151-559: STEREO ( Solar TErrestrial RElations Observatory ) is a solar observation mission. Two nearly identical spacecraft ( STEREO-A , STEREO-B ) were launched in 2006 into orbits around the Sun that cause them to respectively pull farther ahead of and fall gradually behind the Earth. This enabled stereoscopic imaging of the Sun and solar phenomena, such as coronal mass ejections . Contact with STEREO-B
302-436: A raster image (like a television picture) directly onto the retina of the eye. The user sees what appears to be a conventional display floating in space in front of them. For true stereoscopy, each eye must be provided with its own discrete display. To produce a virtual display that occupies a usefully large visual angle but does not involve the use of relatively large lenses or mirrors, the light source must be very close to
453-512: A stereoscope . Most stereoscopic methods present a pair of two-dimensional images to the viewer. The left image is presented to the left eye and the right image is presented to the right eye. When viewed, the human brain perceives the images as a single 3D view, giving the viewer the perception of 3D depth. However, the 3D effect lacks proper focal depth, which gives rise to the Vergence-accommodation conflict . Stereoscopy
604-421: A "time parallax" for anything side-moving: for instance, someone walking at 3.4 mph will be seen 20% too close or 25% too remote in the most current case of a 2x60 Hz projection. To present stereoscopic pictures, two images are projected superimposed onto the same screen through polarizing filters or presented on a display with polarized filters. For projection, a silver screen is used so that polarization
755-403: A 3D illusion starting from a pair of 2D images, a stereogram. The easiest way to enhance depth perception in the brain is to provide the eyes of the viewer with two different images, representing two perspectives of the same object, with a minor deviation equal or nearly equal to the perspectives that both eyes naturally receive in binocular vision . To avoid eyestrain and distortion, each of
906-483: A carrier wave was not detected after September 23. Engineers determined that during an attempt to despin the spacecraft, a frozen thruster fuel valve probably led to the spin increasing rather than decreasing. As STEREO-B moved along its orbit, it was hoped that its solar panels may again generate enough power to charge the battery. Four years after the initial loss of contact, NASA terminated periodic recovery operations effective October 17, 2018. The principal benefit of
1057-492: A display. Passive viewers filter constant streams of binocular input to the appropriate eye. A shutter system works by openly presenting the image intended for the left eye while blocking the right eye's view, then presenting the right-eye image while blocking the left eye, and repeating this so rapidly that the interruptions do not interfere with the perceived fusion of the two images into a single 3D image. It generally uses liquid crystal shutter glasses. Each eye's glass contains
1208-515: A distance of one astronomical unit (AU) from the Sun (that is, at or near Earth's orbit). Sunlight on the surface of Earth is attenuated by Earth's atmosphere , so that less power arrives at the surface (closer to 1,000 W/m ) in clear conditions when the Sun is near the zenith . Sunlight at the top of Earth's atmosphere is composed (by total energy) of about 50% infrared light, 40% visible light, and 10% ultraviolet light. The atmosphere filters out over 70% of solar ultraviolet, especially at
1359-403: A fairly small amount of power being generated per cubic metre . Theoretical models of the Sun's interior indicate a maximum power density, or energy production, of approximately 276.5 watts per cubic metre at the center of the core, which, according to Karl Kruszelnicki , is about the same power density inside a compost pile . The fusion rate in the core is in a self-correcting equilibrium:
1510-414: A few millimeters. Re-emission happens in a random direction and usually at slightly lower energy. With this sequence of emissions and absorptions, it takes a long time for radiation to reach the Sun's surface. Estimates of the photon travel time range between 10,000 and 170,000 years. In contrast, it takes only 2.3 seconds for neutrinos , which account for about 2% of the total energy production of
1661-401: A granular appearance called the solar granulation at the smallest scale and supergranulation at larger scales. Turbulent convection in this outer part of the solar interior sustains "small-scale" dynamo action over the near-surface volume of the Sun. The Sun's thermal columns are Bénard cells and take the shape of roughly hexagonal prisms. The visible surface of the Sun, the photosphere,
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#17327722971701812-441: A liquid crystal layer which has the property of becoming dark when voltage is applied, being otherwise transparent. The glasses are controlled by a timing signal that allows the glasses to alternately darken over one eye, and then the other, in synchronization with the refresh rate of the screen. The main drawback of active shutters is that most 3D videos and movies were shot with simultaneous left and right views, so that it introduces
1963-435: A perceived scene include: (All but the first two of the above cues exist in traditional two-dimensional images, such as paintings, photographs, and television.) Stereoscopy is the production of the impression of depth in a photograph , movie , or other two-dimensional image by the presentation of a slightly different image to each eye , which adds the first of these cues ( stereopsis ). The two images are then combined in
2114-520: A period known as the Maunder minimum . This coincided in time with the era of the Little Ice Age , when Europe experienced unusually cold temperatures. Earlier extended minima have been discovered through analysis of tree rings and appear to have coincided with lower-than-average global temperatures. The temperature of the photosphere is approximately 6,000 K, whereas the temperature of
2265-485: A phenomenon described by Hale's law . During the solar cycle's declining phase, energy shifts from the internal toroidal magnetic field to the external poloidal field, and sunspots diminish in number and size. At solar-cycle minimum, the toroidal field is, correspondingly, at minimum strength, sunspots are relatively rare, and the poloidal field is at its maximum strength. With the rise of the next 11-year sunspot cycle, differential rotation shifts magnetic energy back from
2416-547: A principal reason for the STEREO mission. STEREO program scientist Madhulika Guhathakurta expected "great advances" in theoretical solar physics and space weather forecasting with the advent of constant 360° views of the Sun. STEREO's observations are incorporated into forecasts of solar activity for airlines, power companies, satellite operators, and others. STEREO has also been used to discover 122 eclipsing binaries and study hundreds more variable stars . STEREO can look at
2567-473: A result, the outward-flowing solar wind stretches the interplanetary magnetic field outward, forcing it into a roughly radial structure. For a simple dipolar solar magnetic field, with opposite hemispherical polarities on either side of the solar magnetic equator, a thin current sheet is formed in the solar wind. At great distances, the rotation of the Sun twists the dipolar magnetic field and corresponding current sheet into an Archimedean spiral structure called
2718-463: A rotating geocentric frame of reference in which the Sun is always in the same direction, of about 1.8 km/s, but the speed varies considerably depending on how close they are to their respective aphelion or perihelion (as well as on the position of Earth). Their current locations are shown here . Over time, the STEREO spacecraft continued to separate from each other at a combined rate of approximately 44° per year. There were no final positions for
2869-409: A side-by-side image pair without using a viewing device. Two methods are available to freeview: Prismatic, self-masking glasses are now being used by some cross-eyed-view advocates. These reduce the degree of convergence required and allow large images to be displayed. However, any viewing aid that uses prisms, mirrors or lenses to assist fusion or focus is simply a type of stereoscope, excluded by
3020-784: A significant amount of data about the event without being harmed. Each of the spacecraft carries cameras, particle experiments and radio detectors in four instrument packages: Each STEREO spacecraft had a dry mass of 547 kg (1,206 lb) and a launch mass of 619 kg (1,364 lb). In their stowed configuration, each had a length, width and height of 2.0 × 1.2 × 1.1 m (6.67 × 4.00 × 3.75 ft). Upon solar-array deployment, its width increased to 6.5 m (21.24 ft). With all of its instrument booms and antennae deployed, its dimensions are 7.5 × 8.7 × 5.9 m (24.5 × 28.6 × 19.2 ft). The solar panels can produce an average of 596 watts of power, and
3171-410: A slightly higher rate of fusion would cause the core to heat up more and expand slightly against the weight of the outer layers, reducing the density and hence the fusion rate and correcting the perturbation ; and a slightly lower rate would cause the core to cool and shrink slightly, increasing the density and increasing the fusion rate and again reverting it to its present rate. The radiative zone
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#17327722971703322-406: A transition layer, the tachocline . This is a region where the sharp regime change between the uniform rotation of the radiative zone and the differential rotation of the convection zone results in a large shear between the two—a condition where successive horizontal layers slide past one another. Presently, it is hypothesized that a magnetic dynamo, or solar dynamo , within this layer generates
3473-457: A volume. Such displays use voxels instead of pixels . Volumetric displays include multiplanar displays, which have multiple display planes stacked up, and rotating panel displays, where a rotating panel sweeps out a volume. Other technologies have been developed to project light dots in the air above a device. An infrared laser is focused on the destination in space, generating a small bubble of plasma which emits visible light. Integral imaging
3624-650: A window. Unfortunately, this "pure" form requires the subject to be laser-lit and completely motionless—to within a minor fraction of the wavelength of light—during the photographic exposure, and laser light must be used to properly view the results. Most people have never seen a laser-lit transmission hologram. The types of holograms commonly encountered have seriously compromised image quality so that ordinary white light can be used for viewing, and non-holographic intermediate imaging processes are almost always resorted to, as an alternative to using powerful and hazardous pulsed lasers, when living subjects are photographed. Although
3775-570: Is 1 astronomical unit ( 1.496 × 10 km ) or about 8 light-minutes away. Its diameter is about 1,391,400 km ( 864,600 mi ), 109 times that of Earth. Its mass is about 330,000 times that of Earth, making up about 99.86% of the total mass of the Solar System. Roughly three-quarters of the Sun's mass consists of hydrogen (~73%); the rest is mostly helium (~25%), with much smaller quantities of heavier elements, including oxygen , carbon , neon , and iron . The Sun
3926-494: Is a G-type main-sequence star (G2V), informally called a yellow dwarf , though its light is actually white. It formed approximately 4.6 billion years ago from the gravitational collapse of matter within a region of a large molecular cloud . Most of this matter gathered in the center, whereas the rest flattened into an orbiting disk that became the Solar System . The central mass became so hot and dense that it eventually initiated nuclear fusion in its core . Every second,
4077-404: Is a single-image stereogram (SIS), designed to create the visual illusion of a three- dimensional ( 3D ) scene within the human brain from an external two-dimensional image. In order to perceive 3D shapes in these autostereograms, one must overcome the normally automatic coordination between focusing and vergence . The stereoscope is essentially an instrument in which two photographs of
4228-415: Is a technique for creating or enhancing the illusion of depth in an image by means of stereopsis for binocular vision . The word stereoscopy derives from Greek στερεός (stereos) 'firm, solid' and σκοπέω (skopeō) 'to look, to see'. Any stereoscopic image is called a stereogram . Originally, stereogram referred to a pair of stereo images which could be viewed using
4379-452: Is a technique for producing 3D displays which are both autostereoscopic and multiscopic , meaning that the 3D image is viewed without the use of special glasses and different aspects are seen when it is viewed from positions that differ either horizontally or vertically. This is achieved by using an array of microlenses (akin to a lenticular lens , but an X–Y or "fly's eye" array in which each lenslet typically forms its own image of
4530-513: Is achieved. This technique uses specific wavelengths of red, green, and blue for the right eye, and different wavelengths of red, green, and blue for the left eye. Eyeglasses which filter out the very specific wavelengths allow the wearer to see a full color 3D image. It is also known as spectral comb filtering or wavelength multiplex visualization or super-anaglyph . Dolby 3D uses this principle. The Omega 3D/ Panavision 3D system has also used an improved version of this technology In June 2012
4681-449: Is based on the fact that with a prism, colors are separated by varying degrees. The ChromaDepth eyeglasses contain special view foils, which consist of microscopically small prisms. This causes the image to be translated a certain amount that depends on its color. If one uses a prism foil now with one eye but not on the other eye, then the two seen pictures – depending upon color – are more or less widely separated. The brain produces
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4832-692: Is based on the phenomenon of the human eye processing images more slowly when there is less light, as when looking through a dark lens. Because the Pulfrich effect depends on motion in a particular direction to instigate the illusion of depth, it is not useful as a general stereoscopic technique. For example, it cannot be used to show a stationary object apparently extending into or out of the screen; similarly, objects moving vertically will not be seen as moving in depth. Incidental movement of objects will create spurious artifacts, and these incidental effects will be seen as artificial depth not related to actual depth in
4983-591: Is by far the brightest object in the Earth's sky , with an apparent magnitude of −26.74. This is about 13 billion times brighter than the next brightest star, Sirius , which has an apparent magnitude of −1.46. One astronomical unit (about 150 million kilometres; 93 million miles) is defined as the mean distance between the centres of the Sun and the Earth. The instantaneous distance varies by about ± 2.5 million km or 1.55 million miles as Earth moves from perihelion on ~ January 3rd to aphelion on ~ July 4th. At its average distance, light travels from
5134-436: Is defined to begin at the distance where the flow of the solar wind becomes superalfvénic —that is, where the flow becomes faster than the speed of Alfvén waves, at approximately 20 solar radii ( 0.1 AU ). Turbulence and dynamic forces in the heliosphere cannot affect the shape of the solar corona within, because the information can only travel at the speed of Alfvén waves. The solar wind travels outward continuously through
5285-421: Is distinguished from other types of 3D displays that display an image in three full dimensions , allowing the observer to increase information about the 3-dimensional objects being displayed by head and eye movements . Stereoscopy creates the impression of three-dimensional depth from a pair of two-dimensional images. Human vision, including the perception of depth, is a complex process, which only begins with
5436-402: Is facilitated by the full ionization of helium in the transition region, which significantly reduces radiative cooling of the plasma. The transition region does not occur at a well-defined altitude, but forms a kind of nimbus around chromospheric features such as spicules and filaments , and is in constant, chaotic motion. The transition region is not easily visible from Earth's surface, but
5587-409: Is limited by the lesser of the display medium or human eye. This is because as the dimensions of an image are increased, either the viewing apparatus or viewer themselves must move proportionately further away from it in order to view it comfortably. Moving closer to an image in order to see more detail would only be possible with viewing equipment that adjusted to the difference. Freeviewing is viewing
5738-456: Is more cumbersome than the common misnomer "3D", which has been entrenched by many decades of unquestioned misuse. Although most stereoscopic displays do not qualify as real 3D display, all real 3D displays are also stereoscopic displays because they meet the lower criteria also. Most 3D displays use this stereoscopic method to convey images. It was first invented by Sir Charles Wheatstone in 1838, and improved by Sir David Brewster who made
5889-409: Is only 84% of what it was in the protostellar phase (before nuclear fusion in the core started). In the future, helium will continue to accumulate in the core, and in about 5 billion years this gradual build-up will eventually cause the Sun to exit the main sequence and become a red giant . The chemical composition of the photosphere is normally considered representative of the composition of
6040-402: Is preserved. On most passive displays every other row of pixels is polarized for one eye or the other. This method is also known as being interlaced. The viewer wears low-cost eyeglasses which also contain a pair of opposite polarizing filters. As each filter only passes light which is similarly polarized and blocks the opposite polarized light, each eye only sees one of the images, and the effect
6191-441: Is readily observable from space by instruments sensitive to extreme ultraviolet . The corona is the next layer of the Sun. The low corona, near the surface of the Sun, has a particle density around 10 m to 10 m . The average temperature of the corona and solar wind is about 1,000,000–2,000,000 K; however, in the hottest regions it is 8,000,000–20,000,000 K. Although no complete theory yet exists to account for
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6342-410: Is strongly attenuated by Earth's ozone layer , so that the amount of UV varies greatly with latitude and has been partially responsible for many biological adaptations, including variations in human skin color . High-energy gamma ray photons initially released with fusion reactions in the core are almost immediately absorbed by the solar plasma of the radiative zone, usually after traveling only
6493-422: Is suggested by a high abundance of heavy elements in the Solar System, such as gold and uranium , relative to the abundances of these elements in so-called Population II , heavy-element-poor, stars. The heavy elements could most plausibly have been produced by endothermic nuclear reactions during a supernova, or by transmutation through neutron absorption within a massive second-generation star. The Sun
6644-470: Is tens to hundreds of kilometers thick, and is slightly less opaque than air on Earth. Because the upper part of the photosphere is cooler than the lower part, an image of the Sun appears brighter in the center than on the edge or limb of the solar disk, in a phenomenon known as limb darkening . The spectrum of sunlight has approximately the spectrum of a black-body radiating at 5,772 K (9,930 °F), interspersed with atomic absorption lines from
6795-431: Is that, in the case of "3D" displays, the observer's head and eye movement do not change the information received about the 3-dimensional objects being viewed. Holographic displays and volumetric display do not have this limitation. Just as it is not possible to recreate a full 3-dimensional sound field with just two stereophonic speakers, it is an overstatement to call dual 2D images "3D". The accurate term "stereoscopic"
6946-437: Is the layer below which the Sun becomes opaque to visible light. Photons produced in this layer escape the Sun through the transparent solar atmosphere above it and become solar radiation, sunlight. The change in opacity is due to the decreasing amount of H ions , which absorb visible light easily. Conversely, the visible light perceived is produced as electrons react with hydrogen atoms to produce H ions. The photosphere
7097-424: Is the most prominent variation in which the number and size of sunspots waxes and wanes. The solar magnetic field extends well beyond the Sun itself. The electrically conducting solar wind plasma carries the Sun's magnetic field into space, forming what is called the interplanetary magnetic field . In an approximation known as ideal magnetohydrodynamics , plasma particles only move along magnetic field lines. As
7248-531: Is the only region of the Sun that produces an appreciable amount of thermal energy through fusion; 99% of the Sun's power is generated in the innermost 24% of its radius, and almost no fusion occurs beyond 30% of the radius. The rest of the Sun is heated by this energy as it is transferred outward through many successive layers, finally to the solar photosphere where it escapes into space through radiation (photons) or advection (massive particles). The proton–proton chain occurs around 9.2 × 10 times each second in
7399-420: Is the thickest layer of the Sun, at 0.45 solar radii. From the core out to about 0.7 solar radii , thermal radiation is the primary means of energy transfer. The temperature drops from approximately 7 million to 2 million kelvins with increasing distance from the core. This temperature gradient is less than the value of the adiabatic lapse rate and hence cannot drive convection, which explains why
7550-444: Is theorized to become a super dense black dwarf , giving off negligible energy. The English word sun developed from Old English sunne . Cognates appear in other Germanic languages , including West Frisian sinne , Dutch zon , Low German Sünn , Standard German Sonne , Bavarian Sunna , Old Norse sunna , and Gothic sunnō . All these words stem from Proto-Germanic * sunnōn . This
7701-538: Is ultimately related to the word for sun in other branches of the Indo-European language family, though in most cases a nominative stem with an l is found, rather than the genitive stem in n , as for example in Latin sōl , ancient Greek ἥλιος ( hēlios ), Welsh haul and Czech slunce , as well as (with *l > r ) Sanskrit स्वर् ( svár ) and Persian خور ( xvar ). Indeed,
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#17327722971707852-404: Is useful in viewing images rendered from large multi- dimensional data sets such as are produced by experimental data. Modern industrial three-dimensional photography may use 3D scanners to detect and record three-dimensional information. The three-dimensional depth information can be reconstructed from two images using a computer by correlating the pixels in the left and right images. Solving
8003-435: Is visible from a different range of positions in front of the display. This allows the viewer to move left-right in front of the display and see the correct view from any position. The technology includes two broad classes of displays: those that use head-tracking to ensure that each of the viewer's two eyes sees a different image on the screen, and those that display multiple views so that the display does not need to know where
8154-404: Is visually indistinguishable from the original, given the original lighting conditions. It creates a light field identical to that which emanated from the original scene, with parallax about all axes and a very wide viewing angle. The eye differentially focuses objects at different distances and subject detail is preserved down to the microscopic level. The effect is exactly like looking through
8305-402: Is wave heating, in which sound, gravitational or magnetohydrodynamic waves are produced by turbulence in the convection zone. These waves travel upward and dissipate in the corona, depositing their energy in the ambient matter in the form of heat. The other is magnetic heating, in which magnetic energy is continuously built up by photospheric motion and released through magnetic reconnection in
8456-547: The Alfvén surface , the boundary separating the corona from the solar wind, defined as where the coronal plasma's Alfvén speed and the large-scale solar wind speed are equal. During the flyby, Parker Solar Probe passed into and out of the corona several times. This proved the predictions that the Alfvén critical surface is not shaped like a smooth ball, but has spikes and valleys that wrinkle its surface. The Sun emits light across
8607-506: The Correspondence problem in the field of Computer Vision aims to create meaningful depth information from two images. Anatomically, there are 3 levels of binocular vision required to view stereo images: These functions develop in early childhood. Some people who have strabismus disrupt the development of stereopsis, however orthoptics treatment can be used to improve binocular vision . A person's stereoacuity determines
8758-524: The Parker spiral . Sunspots are visible as dark patches on the Sun's photosphere and correspond to concentrations of magnetic field where convective transport of heat is inhibited from the solar interior to the surface. As a result, sunspots are slightly cooler than the surrounding photosphere, so they appear dark. At a typical solar minimum , few sunspots are visible, and occasionally none can be seen at all. Those that do appear are at high solar latitudes. As
8909-467: The Stereo Realist format, introduced in 1947, is by far the most common. The user typically wears a helmet or glasses with two small LCD or OLED displays with magnifying lenses, one for each eye. The technology can be used to show stereo films, images or games, but it can also be used to create a virtual display. Head-mounted displays may also be coupled with head-tracking devices, allowing
9060-410: The corona , and the heliosphere . The coolest layer of the Sun is a temperature minimum region extending to about 500 km above the photosphere, and has a temperature of about 4,100 K . This part of the Sun is cool enough to allow for the existence of simple molecules such as carbon monoxide and water. The chromosphere, transition region, and corona are much hotter than the surface of
9211-614: The l -stem survived in Proto-Germanic as well, as * sōwelan , which gave rise to Gothic sauil (alongside sunnō ) and Old Norse prosaic sól (alongside poetic sunna ), and through it the words for sun in the modern Scandinavian languages: Swedish and Danish sol , Icelandic sól , etc. The principal adjectives for the Sun in English are sunny for sunlight and, in technical contexts, solar ( / ˈ s oʊ l ər / ), from Latin sol . From
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#17327722971709362-428: The photosphere . For the purpose of measurement, the Sun's radius is considered to be the distance from its center to the edge of the photosphere, the apparent visible surface of the Sun. By this measure, the Sun is a near-perfect sphere with an oblateness estimated at 9 millionths, which means that its polar diameter differs from its equatorial diameter by only 10 kilometers (6.2 mi). The tidal effect of
9513-444: The visible spectrum , so its color is white , with a CIE color-space index near (0.3, 0.3), when viewed from space or when the Sun is high in the sky. The Solar radiance per wavelength peaks in the green portion of the spectrum when viewed from space. When the Sun is very low in the sky, atmospheric scattering renders the Sun yellow, red, orange, or magenta, and in rare occasions even green or blue . Some cultures mentally picture
9664-465: The Greek helios comes the rare adjective heliac ( / ˈ h iː l i æ k / ). In English, the Greek and Latin words occur in poetry as personifications of the Sun, Helios ( / ˈ h iː l i ə s / ) and Sol ( / ˈ s ɒ l / ), while in science fiction Sol may be used to distinguish the Sun from other stars. The term sol with a lowercase s is used by planetary astronomers for
9815-518: The Moon's orbit. On December 15, 2006, on the fifth orbit, the pair swung by the Moon for a gravity assist . Because the two spacecraft were in slightly different orbits, the "ahead" (A) spacecraft was ejected to a heliocentric orbit inside Earth's orbit, while the "behind" (B) spacecraft remained temporarily in a high Earth orbit. The B spacecraft encountered the Moon again on the same orbital revolution on January 21, 2007, being ejected from Earth orbit in
9966-569: The Omega 3D/Panavision 3D system was discontinued by DPVO Theatrical, who marketed it on behalf of Panavision, citing "challenging global economic and 3D market conditions". Anaglyph 3D is the name given to the stereoscopic 3D effect achieved by means of encoding each eye's image using filters of different (usually chromatically opposite) colors, typically red and cyan . Red-cyan filters can be used because our vision processing systems use red and cyan comparisons, as well as blue and yellow, to determine
10117-609: The PowerPC chip found in older Macintoshes ). The computers, slow by current personal computer standards, are typical for the radiation requirements needed on the STEREO mission. STEREO also carries Actel FPGAs that use triple modular redundancy for radiation hardening. The FPGAs hold the P24 MISC and CPU24 soft microprocessors . For data storage, each spacecraft carries a solid-state recorder able to store up to 1 gigabyte each. Its main processor collects and stores on
10268-558: The SECCHI Guide Telescope. STEREO's onboard computer systems are based on the Integrated Electronics Module (IEM), a device that combines core avionics in a single box. Each single-string spacecraft carries two CPUs, one for command and data handling and one for guidance and control. Both are radiation-hardened 25- megahertz IBM RAD6000 processors, based on POWER1 CPUs (predecessor of
10419-446: The Solar System . Long-term secular change in sunspot number is thought, by some scientists, to be correlated with long-term change in solar irradiance, which, in turn, might influence Earth's long-term climate. The solar cycle influences space weather conditions, including those surrounding Earth. For example, in the 17th century, the solar cycle appeared to have stopped entirely for several decades; few sunspots were observed during
10570-443: The Sun as yellow and some even red; the cultural reasons for this are debated. The Sun is classed as a G2 star, meaning it is a G-type star , with 2 indicating its surface temperature is in the second range of the G class. The solar constant is the amount of power that the Sun deposits per unit area that is directly exposed to sunlight. The solar constant is equal to approximately 1,368 W/m (watts per square meter) at
10721-424: The Sun extends from the center to about 20–25% of the solar radius. It has a density of up to 150 g/cm (about 150 times the density of water) and a temperature of close to 15.7 million kelvin (K). By contrast, the Sun's surface temperature is about 5800 K . Recent analysis of SOHO mission data favors the idea that the core is rotating faster than the radiative zone outside it. Through most of
10872-438: The Sun into a red giant . This process will make the Sun large enough to render Earth uninhabitable approximately five billion years from the present. After the red giant phase, models suggest the Sun will shed its outer layers and become a dense type of cooling star (a white dwarf ), and no longer produce energy by fusion, but will still glow and give off heat from its previous fusion for perhaps trillions of years. After that, it
11023-413: The Sun's magnetic field . The Sun's convection zone extends from 0.7 solar radii (500,000 km) to near the surface. In this layer, the solar plasma is not dense or hot enough to transfer the heat energy of the interior outward via radiation. Instead, the density of the plasma is low enough to allow convective currents to develop and move the Sun's energy outward towards its surface. Material heated at
11174-398: The Sun's core by radiation rather than by convection (see Radiative zone below), so the fusion products are not lifted outward by heat; they remain in the core, and gradually an inner core of helium has begun to form that cannot be fused because presently the Sun's core is not hot or dense enough to fuse helium. In the current photosphere, the helium fraction is reduced, and the metallicity
11325-437: The Sun's core fuses about 600 billion kilograms (kg) of hydrogen into helium and converts 4 billion kg of matter into energy . About 4 to 7 billion years from now, when hydrogen fusion in the Sun's core diminishes to the point where the Sun is no longer in hydrostatic equilibrium , its core will undergo a marked increase in density and temperature which will cause its outer layers to expand, eventually transforming
11476-403: The Sun's horizon to Earth's horizon in about 8 minutes and 20 seconds, while light from the closest points of the Sun and Earth takes about two seconds less. The energy of this sunlight supports almost all life on Earth by photosynthesis , and drives Earth's climate and weather. The Sun does not have a definite boundary, but its density decreases exponentially with increasing height above
11627-499: The Sun's life, energy has been produced by nuclear fusion in the core region through the proton–proton chain ; this process converts hydrogen into helium. Currently, 0.8% of the energy generated in the Sun comes from another sequence of fusion reactions called the CNO cycle ; the proportion coming from the CNO cycle is expected to increase as the Sun becomes older and more luminous. The core
11778-551: The Sun's life, they account for 74.9% and 23.8%, respectively, of the mass of the Sun in the photosphere. All heavier elements, called metals in astronomy, account for less than 2% of the mass, with oxygen (roughly 1% of the Sun's mass), carbon (0.3%), neon (0.2%), and iron (0.2%) being the most abundant. The Sun's original chemical composition was inherited from the interstellar medium out of which it formed. Originally it would have been about 71.1% hydrogen, 27.4% helium, and 1.5% heavier elements. The hydrogen and most of
11929-438: The Sun, to reach the surface. Because energy transport in the Sun is a process that involves photons in thermodynamic equilibrium with matter , the time scale of energy transport in the Sun is longer, on the order of 30,000,000 years. This is the time it would take the Sun to return to a stable state if the rate of energy generation in its core were suddenly changed. Electron neutrinos are released by fusion reactions in
12080-402: The Sun. The reason is not well understood, but evidence suggests that Alfvén waves may have enough energy to heat the corona. Above the temperature minimum layer is a layer about 2,000 km thick, dominated by a spectrum of emission and absorption lines. It is called the chromosphere from the Greek root chroma , meaning color, because the chromosphere is visible as a colored flash at
12231-419: The acquisition of visual information taken in through the eyes; much processing ensues within the brain, as it strives to make sense of the raw information. One of the functions that occur within the brain as it interprets what the eyes see is assessing the relative distances of objects from the viewer, and the depth dimension of those objects. The cues that the brain uses to gauge relative distances and depth in
12382-486: The beginning and end of total solar eclipses. The temperature of the chromosphere increases gradually with altitude, ranging up to around 20,000 K near the top. In the upper part of the chromosphere helium becomes partially ionized . Above the chromosphere, in a thin (about 200 km ) transition region, the temperature rises rapidly from around 20,000 K in the upper chromosphere to coronal temperatures closer to 1,000,000 K . The temperature increase
12533-417: The brain to give the perception of depth. Because all points in the image produced by stereoscopy focus at the same plane regardless of their depth in the original scene, the second cue, focus, is not duplicated and therefore the illusion of depth is incomplete. There are also mainly two effects of stereoscopy that are unnatural for human vision: (1) the mismatch between convergence and accommodation, caused by
12684-421: The color and contours of objects. Anaglyph 3D images contain two differently filtered colored images, one for each eye. When viewed through the "color-coded" "anaglyph glasses", each of the two images reaches one eye, revealing an integrated stereoscopic image. The visual cortex of the brain fuses this into perception of a three dimensional scene or composition. The ChromaDepth procedure of American Paper Optics
12835-404: The continuing miniaturization of video and other equipment these devices are beginning to become available at more reasonable cost. Head-mounted or wearable glasses may be used to view a see-through image imposed upon the real world view, creating what is called augmented reality . This is done by reflecting the video images through partially reflective mirrors. The real world view is seen through
12986-460: The core, but, unlike photons, they rarely interact with matter, so almost all are able to escape the Sun immediately. However, measurements of the number of these neutrinos produced in the Sun are lower than theories predict by a factor of 3. In 2001, the discovery of neutrino oscillation resolved the discrepancy: the Sun emits the number of electron neutrinos predicted by the theory, but neutrino detectors were missing 2 ⁄ 3 of them because
13137-501: The core, converting about 3.7 × 10 protons into alpha particles (helium nuclei) every second (out of a total of ~8.9 × 10 free protons in the Sun), or about 6.2 × 10 kg/s . However, each proton (on average) takes around 9 billion years to fuse with another using the PP chain. Fusing four free protons (hydrogen nuclei) into a single alpha particle (helium nucleus) releases around 0.7% of
13288-401: The corona reaches 1,000,000–2,000,000 K . The high temperature of the corona shows that it is heated by something other than direct heat conduction from the photosphere. It is thought that the energy necessary to heat the corona is provided by turbulent motion in the convection zone below the photosphere, and two main mechanisms have been proposed to explain coronal heating. The first
13439-612: The customary definition of freeviewing. Stereoscopically fusing two separate images without the aid of mirrors or prisms while simultaneously keeping them in sharp focus without the aid of suitable viewing lenses inevitably requires an unnatural combination of eye vergence and accommodation . Simple freeviewing therefore cannot accurately reproduce the physiological depth cues of the real-world viewing experience. Different individuals may experience differing degrees of ease and comfort in achieving fusion and good focus, as well as differing tendencies to eye fatigue or strain. An autostereogram
13590-401: The detection of the sunspots that are associated with CMEs on the far side of the Sun was only possible using helioseismology , which only provides low-resolution maps of the activity on the far side of the Sun. Since the Sun rotates every 25 days, detail on the far side was invisible to Earth for days at a time before STEREO. The period that the Sun's far side was previously invisible was
13741-433: The difference between an object's perceived position in front of or behind the display or screen and the real origin of that light; and (2) possible crosstalk between the eyes, caused by imperfect image separation in some methods of stereoscopy. Although the term "3D" is ubiquitously used, the presentation of dual 2D images is distinctly different from displaying an image in three full dimensions . The most notable difference
13892-433: The display, rather than worn by the user, to enable each eye to see a different image. Because headgear is not required, it is also called "glasses-free 3D". The optics split the images directionally into the viewer's eyes, so the display viewing geometry requires limited head positions that will achieve the stereoscopic effect. Automultiscopic displays provide multiple views of the same scene, rather than just two. Each view
14043-400: The duration of a solar day on another planet such as Mars . The astronomical symbol for the Sun is a circle with a center dot, [REDACTED] . It is used for such units as M ☉ ( Solar mass ), R ☉ ( Solar radius ) and L ☉ ( Solar luminosity ). The scientific study of the Sun is called heliology . The Sun is a G-type main-sequence star that makes up about 99.86% of
14194-515: The earliest stereoscope views, issued in the 1850s, were on glass. In the early 20th century, 45x107 mm and 6x13 cm glass slides were common formats for amateur stereo photography, especially in Europe. In later years, several film-based formats were in use. The best-known formats for commercially issued stereo views on film are Tru-Vue , introduced in 1931, and View-Master , introduced in 1939 and still in production. For amateur stereo slides,
14345-470: The effect was wholly or in part due to these circumstances, whereas by leaving them out of consideration no room is left to doubt that the entire effect of relief is owing to the simultaneous perception of the two monocular projections, one on each retina. But if it be required to obtain the most faithful resemblances of real objects, shadowing and colouring may properly be employed to heighten the effects. Careful attention would enable an artist to draw and paint
14496-491: The energy from its surface mainly as visible light and infrared radiation with 10% at ultraviolet energies. It is by far the most important source of energy for life on Earth . The Sun has been an object of veneration in many cultures. It has been a central subject for astronomical research since antiquity . The Sun orbits the Galactic Center at a distance of 24,000 to 28,000 light-years . From Earth, it
14647-563: The external poloidal dipolar magnetic field is near its dynamo-cycle minimum strength; but an internal toroidal quadrupolar field, generated through differential rotation within the tachocline, is near its maximum strength. At this point in the dynamo cycle, buoyant upwelling within the convective zone forces emergence of the toroidal magnetic field through the photosphere, giving rise to pairs of sunspots, roughly aligned east–west and having footprints with opposite magnetic polarities. The magnetic polarity of sunspot pairs alternates every solar cycle,
14798-521: The eye. A contact lens incorporating one or more semiconductor light sources is the form most commonly proposed. As of 2013, the inclusion of suitable light-beam-scanning means in a contact lens is still very problematic, as is the alternative of embedding a reasonably transparent array of hundreds of thousands (or millions, for HD resolution) of accurately aligned sources of collimated light. There are two categories of 3D viewer technology, active and passive. Active viewers have electronics which interact with
14949-416: The far side for coronal mass ejections — massive bursts of solar wind , solar plasma , and magnetic fields that are sometimes ejected into space. Since the radiation from coronal mass ejections, or CMEs, can disrupt Earth's communications, airlines, power grids, and satellites, more accurate forecasting of CMEs has the potential to provide greater warning to operators of these services. Before STEREO,
15100-404: The first portable 3D viewing device. Wheatstone originally used his stereoscope (a rather bulky device) with drawings because photography was not yet available, yet his original paper seems to foresee the development of a realistic imaging method: For the purposes of illustration I have employed only outline figures, for had either shading or colouring been introduced it might be supposed that
15251-493: The form of large solar flares and myriad similar but smaller events— nanoflares . Currently, it is unclear whether waves are an efficient heating mechanism. All waves except Alfvén waves have been found to dissipate or refract before reaching the corona. In addition, Alfvén waves do not easily dissipate in the corona. Current research focus has therefore shifted towards flare heating mechanisms. Stereoscopic Stereoscopy (also called stereoscopics , or stereo imaging )
15402-404: The fused mass as energy, so the Sun releases energy at the mass–energy conversion rate of 4.26 billion kg/s (which requires 600 billion kg of hydrogen ), for 384.6 yottawatts ( 3.846 × 10 W ), or 9.192 × 10 megatons of TNT per second. The large power output of the Sun is mainly due to the huge size and density of its core (compared to Earth and objects on Earth), with only
15553-568: The generation of two images. Wiggle stereoscopy is an image display technique achieved by quickly alternating display of left and right sides of a stereogram. Found in animated GIF format on the web, online examples are visible in the New-York Public Library stereogram collection Archived 25 May 2022 at the Wayback Machine . The technique is also known as "Piku-Piku". For general-purpose stereo photography, where
15704-432: The goal is to duplicate natural human vision and give a visual impression as close as possible to actually being there, the correct baseline (distance between where the right and left images are taken) would be the same as the distance between the eyes. When images taken with such a baseline are viewed using a viewing method that duplicates the conditions under which the picture is taken, then the result would be an image much
15855-482: The heliosphere, forming the solar magnetic field into a spiral shape, until it impacts the heliopause more than 50 AU from the Sun. In December 2004, the Voyager 1 probe passed through a shock front that is thought to be part of the heliopause. In late 2012, Voyager 1 recorded a marked increase in cosmic ray collisions and a sharp drop in lower energy particles from the solar wind, which suggested that
16006-432: The helium in the Sun would have been produced by Big Bang nucleosynthesis in the first 20 minutes of the universe, and the heavier elements were produced by previous generations of stars before the Sun was formed, and spread into the interstellar medium during the final stages of stellar life and by events such as supernovae . Since the Sun formed, the main fusion process has involved fusing hydrogen into helium. Over
16157-491: The huge bandwidth required to transmit a stream of them, have confined this technology to the research laboratory. In 2013, a Silicon Valley company, LEIA Inc , started manufacturing holographic displays well suited for mobile devices (watches, smartphones or tablets) using a multi-directional backlight and allowing a wide full- parallax angle view to see 3D content without the need of glasses. Volumetric displays use some physical mechanism to display points of light within
16308-505: The mass of the Solar System. It has an absolute magnitude of +4.83, estimated to be brighter than about 85% of the stars in the Milky Way , most of which are red dwarfs . It is more massive than 95% of the stars within 7 pc (23 ly). The Sun is a Population I , or heavy-element-rich, star. Its formation approximately 4.6 billion years ago may have been triggered by shockwaves from one or more nearby supernovae . This
16459-463: The minimum image disparity they can perceive as depth. It is believed that approximately 12% of people are unable to properly see 3D images, due to a variety of medical conditions. According to another experiment up to 30% of people have very weak stereoscopic vision preventing them from depth perception based on stereo disparity. This nullifies or greatly decreases immersion effects of stereo to them. Stereoscopic viewing may be artificially created by
16610-518: The mirrors' reflective surface. Experimental systems have been used for gaming, where virtual opponents may peek from real windows as a player moves about. This type of system is expected to have wide application in the maintenance of complex systems, as it can give a technician what is effectively "x-ray vision" by combining computer graphics rendering of hidden elements with the technician's natural vision. Additionally, technical data and schematic diagrams may be delivered to this same equipment, eliminating
16761-449: The mission was stereoscopic images of the Sun. Because the satellites are at different points along the Earth's orbit, but distant from the Earth, they can photograph parts of the Sun that are not visible from the Earth. This permits NASA scientists to directly monitor the far side of the Sun, instead of inferring the activity on the far side from data that can be gleaned from Earth's view of the Sun. The STEREO satellites principally monitor
16912-428: The need to obtain and carry bulky paper documents. Augmented stereoscopic vision is also expected to have applications in surgery, as it allows the combination of radiographic data ( CAT scans and MRI imaging) with the surgeon's vision. A virtual retinal display (VRD), also known as a retinal scan display (RSD) or retinal projector (RP), not to be confused with a " Retina Display ", is a display technology that draws
17063-444: The neutrinos had changed flavor by the time they were detected. The Sun has a stellar magnetic field that varies across its surface. Its polar field is 1–2 gauss (0.0001–0.0002 T ), whereas the field is typically 3,000 gauss (0.3 T) in features on the Sun called sunspots and 10–100 gauss (0.001–0.01 T) in solar prominences . The magnetic field varies in time and location. The quasi-periodic 11-year solar cycle
17214-459: The opposite direction from spacecraft A. Spacecraft B entered a heliocentric orbit outside the Earth's orbit. Spacecraft A took 347 days to complete one revolution of the Sun and Spacecraft B took 387 days. The A spacecraft/Sun/Earth angle will increase at 21.650° per year. The B spacecraft/Sun/Earth angle will change −21.999° per year. Given that the length of Earth's orbit is around 940 million kilometres, both craft have an average speed, in
17365-420: The original photographic processes have proven impractical for general use, the combination of computer-generated holograms (CGH) and optoelectronic holographic displays, both under development for many years, has the potential to transform the half-century-old pipe dream of holographic 3D television into a reality; so far, however, the large amount of calculation required to generate just one detailed hologram, and
17516-419: The past 4.6 billion years, the amount of helium and its location within the Sun has gradually changed. The proportion of helium within the core has increased from about 24% to about 60% due to fusion, and some of the helium and heavy elements have settled from the photosphere toward the center of the Sun because of gravity . The proportions of heavier elements are unchanged. Heat is transferred outward from
17667-414: The photospheric surface. Both coronal mass ejections and high-speed streams of solar wind carry plasma and the interplanetary magnetic field outward into the Solar System. The effects of solar activity on Earth include auroras at moderate to high latitudes and the disruption of radio communications and electric power . Solar activity is thought to have played a large role in the formation and evolution of
17818-455: The planets is weak and does not significantly affect the shape of the Sun. The Sun rotates faster at its equator than at its poles . This differential rotation is caused by convective motion due to heat transport and the Coriolis force due to the Sun's rotation. In a frame of reference defined by the stars, the rotational period is approximately 25.6 days at the equator and 33.5 days at
17969-403: The point of view chosen rather than actual physical separation of cameras or lenses. The concept of the stereo window is always important, since the window is the stereoscopic image of the external boundaries of left and right views constituting the stereoscopic image. If any object, which is cut off by lateral sides of the window, is placed in front of it, an effect results that is unnatural and
18120-473: The poles. Viewed from Earth as it orbits the Sun, the apparent rotational period of the Sun at its equator is about 28 days. Viewed from a vantage point above its north pole, the Sun rotates counterclockwise around its axis of spin. A survey of solar analogs suggest the early Sun was rotating up to ten times faster than it does today. This would have made the surface much more active, with greater X-ray and UV emission. Sun spots would have covered 5–30% of
18271-557: The poloidal to the toroidal field, but with a polarity that is opposite to the previous cycle. The process carries on continuously, and in an idealized, simplified scenario, each 11-year sunspot cycle corresponds to a change, then, in the overall polarity of the Sun's large-scale magnetic field. The Sun's magnetic field leads to many effects that are collectively called solar activity . Solar flares and coronal mass ejections tend to occur at sunspot groups. Slowly changing high-speed streams of solar wind are emitted from coronal holes at
18422-415: The presentation of images at very high resolution and in full spectrum color, simplicity in creation, and little or no additional image processing is required. Under some circumstances, such as when a pair of images is presented for freeviewing, no device or additional optical equipment is needed. The principal disadvantage of side-by-side viewers is that large image displays are not practical and resolution
18573-448: The primordial Solar System. Typically, the solar heavy-element abundances described above are measured both by using spectroscopy of the Sun's photosphere and by measuring abundances in meteorites that have never been heated to melting temperatures. These meteorites are thought to retain the composition of the protostellar Sun and are thus not affected by the settling of heavy elements. The two methods generally agree well. The core of
18724-470: The probe had passed through the heliopause and entered the interstellar medium , and indeed did so on August 25, 2012, at approximately 122 astronomical units (18 Tm) from the Sun. The heliosphere has a heliotail which stretches out behind it due to the Sun's peculiar motion through the galaxy. On April 28, 2021, NASA's Parker Solar Probe encountered the specific magnetic and particle conditions at 18.8 solar radii that indicated that it penetrated
18875-461: The recorder images and other data from STEREO's instruments, which can then be sent back to Earth. The spacecraft have an X-band downlink capacity of between 427 and 750 kbit/s . Sun The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System . It is a massive, nearly perfect sphere of hot plasma , heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core, radiating
19026-462: The same as that which would be seen at the site the photo was taken. This could be described as "ortho stereo." However, there are situations in which it might be desirable to use a longer or shorter baseline. The factors to consider include the viewing method to be used and the goal in taking the picture. The concept of baseline also applies to other branches of stereography, such as stereo drawings and computer generated stereo images , but it involves
19177-604: The same object, taken from slightly different angles, are simultaneously presented, one to each eye. A simple stereoscope is limited in the size of the image that may be used. A more complex stereoscope uses a pair of horizontal periscope -like devices, allowing the use of larger images that can present more detailed information in a wider field of view. One can buy historical stereoscopes such as Holmes stereoscopes as antiques. Some stereoscopes are designed for viewing transparent photographs on film or glass, known as transparencies or diapositives and commonly called slides . Some of
19328-533: The same star for up to 20 days. On July 23, 2012, STEREO-A was in the path of the Carrington class CME of the solar storm of 2012 . This CME, it is estimated, if it had collided with Earth's magnetosphere, would have caused a geomagnetic storm of similar strength to the Carrington Event , the most intense geomagnetic storm in recorded history. STEREO-A's instrumentation was able to collect and relay
19479-401: The scene without assistance from a larger objective lens ) or pinholes to capture and display the scene as a 4D light field , producing stereoscopic images that exhibit realistic alterations of parallax and perspective when the viewer moves left, right, up, down, closer, or farther away. Integral imaging may not technically be a type of autostereoscopy, as autostereoscopy still refers to
19630-556: The scene. Stereoscopic viewing is achieved by placing an image pair one above one another. Special viewers are made for over/under format that tilt the right eyesight slightly up and the left eyesight slightly down. The most common one with mirrors is the View Magic. Another with prismatic glasses is the KMQ viewer . A recent usage of this technique is the openKMQ project. Autostereoscopic display technologies use optical components in
19781-437: The shorter wavelengths. Solar ultraviolet radiation ionizes Earth's dayside upper atmosphere, creating the electrically conducting ionosphere . Ultraviolet light from the Sun has antiseptic properties and can be used to sanitize tools and water. This radiation causes sunburn , and has other biological effects such as the production of vitamin D and sun tanning . It is the main cause of skin cancer . Ultraviolet light
19932-425: The solar cycle progresses toward its maximum , sunspots tend to form closer to the solar equator, a phenomenon known as Spörer's law . The largest sunspots can be tens of thousands of kilometers across. An 11-year sunspot cycle is half of a 22-year Babcock –Leighton dynamo cycle, which corresponds to an oscillatory exchange of energy between toroidal and poloidal solar magnetic fields. At solar-cycle maximum,
20083-404: The spacecraft consumes an average of 475 watts. The STEREO spacecraft are 3-axis-stabilized, and each has a primary and backup miniature inertial measurement unit (MIMU) provided by Honeywell . These measure changes to a spacecraft's attitude, and each MIMU contains three ring laser gyroscopes to detect angular changes. Additional attitude information is provided by the star tracker and
20234-510: The spacecraft, but once its computer was powered up, there would only have been about 2 minutes to upload the fix before STEREO-B entered failure mode again. Further, while the spacecraft was power-positive at the time of contact, its orientation would drift, and power levels fall. Two-way communication was achieved, and commands to begin recovering the spacecraft were sent through the rest of August and September. Six attempts at communication between September 27 and October 9, 2016, failed, and
20385-448: The spacecraft. They achieved 90° separation on January 24, 2009, a condition known as quadrature . This was of interest because the mass ejections seen from the side on the limb by one spacecraft can potentially be observed by the in situ particle experiments of the other spacecraft. As they passed through Earth's Lagrangian points L 4 and L 5 , in late 2009, they searched for Lagrangian (trojan) asteroids . On February 6, 2011,
20536-461: The spatial impression from this difference. The advantage of this technology consists above all of the fact that one can regard ChromaDepth pictures also without eyeglasses (thus two-dimensional) problem-free (unlike with two-color anaglyph). However the colors are only limitedly selectable, since they contain the depth information of the picture. If one changes the color of an object, then its observed distance will also be changed. The Pulfrich effect
20687-417: The surface. The rotation rate was gradually slowed by magnetic braking , as the Sun's magnetic field interacted with the outflowing solar wind. A vestige of this rapid primordial rotation still survives at the Sun's core, which has been found to be rotating at a rate of once per week; four times the mean surface rotation rate. The Sun consists mainly of the elements hydrogen and helium . At this time in
20838-431: The tachocline picks up heat and expands, thereby reducing its density and allowing it to rise. As a result, an orderly motion of the mass develops into thermal cells that carry most of the heat outward to the Sun's photosphere above. Once the material diffusively and radiatively cools just beneath the photospheric surface, its density increases, and it sinks to the base of the convection zone, where it again picks up heat from
20989-424: The temperature of the corona, at least some of its heat is known to be from magnetic reconnection . The corona is the extended atmosphere of the Sun, which has a volume much larger than the volume enclosed by the Sun's photosphere. A flow of plasma outward from the Sun into interplanetary space is the solar wind . The heliosphere, the tenuous outermost atmosphere of the Sun, is filled with solar wind plasma and
21140-422: The tenuous layers above the photosphere. The photosphere has a particle density of ~10 m (about 0.37% of the particle number per volume of Earth's atmosphere at sea level). The photosphere is not fully ionized—the extent of ionization is about 3%, leaving almost all of the hydrogen in atomic form. The Sun's atmosphere is composed of five layers: the photosphere, the chromosphere , the transition region ,
21291-404: The top of the radiative zone and the convective cycle continues. At the photosphere, the temperature has dropped 350-fold to 5,700 K (9,800 °F) and the density to only 0.2 g/m (about 1/10,000 the density of air at sea level, and 1 millionth that of the inner layer of the convective zone). The thermal columns of the convection zone form an imprint on the surface of the Sun giving it
21442-418: The transfer of energy through this zone is by radiation instead of thermal convection. Ions of hydrogen and helium emit photons, which travel only a brief distance before being reabsorbed by other ions. The density drops a hundredfold (from 20 000 kg/m to 200 kg/m ) between 0.25 solar radii and 0.7 radii, the top of the radiative zone. The radiative zone and the convective zone are separated by
21593-437: The two 2D images should be presented to the viewer so that any object at infinite distance is perceived by the eye as being straight ahead, the viewer's eyes being neither crossed nor diverging. When the picture contains no object at infinite distance, such as a horizon or a cloud, the pictures should be spaced correspondingly closer together. The advantages of side-by-side viewers is the lack of diminution of brightness, allowing
21744-439: The two component pictures, so as to present to the mind of the observer, in the resultant perception, perfect identity with the object represented. Flowers, crystals, busts, vases, instruments of various kinds, &c., might thus be represented so as not to be distinguished by sight from the real objects themselves. Stereoscopy is used in photogrammetry and also for entertainment through the production of stereograms. Stereoscopy
21895-675: The two spacecraft were exactly 180° apart from each other, allowing the entire Sun to be seen at once for the first time. Even as the angle increases, the addition of an Earth-based view, e.g., from the Solar Dynamics Observatory , still provided full-Sun observations for several years. In 2015, contact was lost for several months when the STEREO spacecraft passed behind the Sun. They then started to approach Earth again, with closest approach in August 2023. They will not be recaptured into Earth orbit. On October 1, 2014, contact
22046-430: The user to "look around" the virtual world by moving their head, eliminating the need for a separate controller. Performing this update quickly enough to avoid inducing nausea in the user requires a great amount of computer image processing. If six axis position sensing (direction and position) is used then wearer may move about within the limitations of the equipment used. Owing to rapid advancements in computer graphics and
22197-481: The viewer's brain, as demonstrated with the Van Hare Effect , where the brain perceives stereo images even when the paired photographs are identical. This "false dimensionality" results from the developed stereoacuity in the brain, allowing the viewer to fill in depth information even when few if any 3D cues are actually available in the paired images. Traditional stereoscopic photography consists of creating
22348-408: The viewers' eyes are directed. Examples of autostereoscopic displays technology include lenticular lens , parallax barrier , volumetric display , holography and light field displays. Laser holography, in its original "pure" form of the photographic transmission hologram , is the only technology yet created which can reproduce an object or scene with such complete realism that the reproduction
22499-594: Was lost in 2014 after it entered an uncontrolled spin preventing its solar panels from generating enough power, but STEREO-A is still operational. STEREO-B Earth The two STEREO spacecraft were launched at 00:52 UTC on October 26, 2006, from Launch Pad 17B at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on a Delta II 7925-10L launcher into highly elliptical geocentric orbits . The apogee reached
22650-414: Was lost with STEREO-B during a planned reset to test the craft's automation, in anticipation of the aforementioned solar "conjunction" period. The team originally thought that the spacecraft had begun to spin, decreasing the amount of power that could be generated by the solar panels. Later analysis of the received telemetry concluded that the spacecraft was in an uncontrolled spin of about 3° per second; this
22801-508: Was too rapid to be immediately corrected using its reaction wheels , which would become oversaturated. NASA used its Deep Space Network , first weekly and later monthly, to try to re-establish communications. After a silence of 22 months, contact was regained at 22:27 UTC on August 21, 2016, when the Deep Space Network established a lock on STEREO-B for 2.4 hours. Engineers planned to work and develop software to fix
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