US space agency Nasa has launched two spacecraft that are
expected to make the first 3D movies of the Sun. CMEs will
typically throw a billion tonnes of matter into space The Stereo
mission will study violent eruptions from our parent star known
as coronal mass ejections (CMEs). The eruptions create huge
clouds of energetic particles that can trigger magnetic storms,
disrupting power grids and air and satellite communications. The
mission is expected to help researchers forecast magnetic storms
- the worst aspects of "space weather". "Coronal mass ejections
are a main thrust of solar physics today," said Mike Kaiser, the
Stereo project scientist at the US space agency's (Nasa) Goddard
Space Flight Center. "With Stereo, we want to understand how
CMEs get started and how they move through the Solar System."
The mission comprises two spacecraft, lofted on a Delta-2 rocket
from Cape Canaveral, Florida. The two near-identical satellites
will orbit the Sun, but one of them will move slightly ahead of
the other, to