iLounge

A team of programmers at NASA have developed an application for studying the sun in a three-dimensional view. Led by Dr. Tony Phillips, editor of Science@NASA, the 3D Sun application allows users to see a live view of the sun using images downloaded from NASA’s Solar-Terrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO) satellites. Users can rotate the view of the star and zoom in on active regions using the touch screen. News items provide information on significant solar events with associated 3D views, images or movies accompanying each news bulletin. Users can also be notified of major events such as solar flares via push notifications. In addition to the 3D views of the sun the application also provides regularly updated movies and image galleries. 3D Sun is available on the App Store as a free download.