NASA’s twin STEREO observatories recently captured the complete surface of the Sun in one image for the first time. With the two orbiting space telescopes reaching the diametrically-opposite sides of the Sun for a few seconds, a 360-degree coverage of the Sun was beamed back to the US space agency on Sunday.

The pair of STEREO satellites – STEREO stands for Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory – was launched by NASA in 2006. The satellites, which have been gradually been drifting apart, Sunday arrived at specific points which placed the Sun directly between them.

The positioning of the telescopes in such a manner will not only give solar physicists the first complete view of our star, but will also help them discover some incredible new information about it.

Noting that the all-round-view of the Sun will be instrumental in understanding what drives the complex processes in the Sun, the UK-based Rutherford Appleton Laboratory’s Professor Richard Harrison - who is the principal investigator on the STEREO project – said: “We're seeing a whole star for the first time. This is an iconic moment for solar physics.”

Further adding that “you can't really study the Sun in great detail just by looking at a bit of it, any more than you could understand the brain by looking at a bit of it or study the Earth's polar regions by looking at the equator;” Harrison said: “You need this global view to really piece the jigsaw puzzle together.”