NASA spacecraft capture first panoramic view of the Sun

Guardian : The first panoramic view of the Sun has been put together from images taken by NASA’s STEREO mission, launched in 2006. Twin spacecraft face each other across the Sun and take photographs of its surface. The images will be used to create a three-dimensional map of the Sun. “The sun is not the smooth yellow sphere a lot of people understand it to be. It’s complex, and a three-dimensional view is essential to understanding how it works,” said Richard Harrison, a scientist at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in Oxfordshire and principal investigator for the UK cameras aboard the spacecraft.