Image of the Sun, taken by the SECCHI Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (EUVI) on the STEREO Ahead observatory. The 195 Angstrom bandpass is sensitive to the Fe XII ionization state of iron, at a characteristic temperature of about 1.4 million degrees Kelvin. This image was produced from the STEREO space weather beacon telemetry. Because of the high amount of compression used for the space weather beacon, the image quality is far lower than in the final science product.

This figure plots the current positions of the STEREO Ahead (red) and Behind (blue) spacecraft relative to the Sun (yellow) and Earth (green). The dotted lines show the angular displacement from the Sun.
Units are in A.U.

When the two spacecraft are close to Earth, an expanded view of the region around Earth will appear on the right, in the same orientation as the Sun-centered view.