U.S. engineers have built instruments to travel aboard the twin spacecraft of NASA's STEREO mission that will detect waves of energy emitted by the sun.

The technology developed by the University of Minnesota is designed to identify occurrences that might be used to forecast coronal mass ejections, or CMEs. Such events can wreak havoc with electronics in space, as well as on Earth.

As our society becomes more electronic and sophisticated, these outbursts become more disruptive, said Paul Kellogg, a retired professor who is a member of the university's space physics team.

The two $400 million STEREO mission spacecraft will be placed into orbit in slingshot fashion by the moon's gravity.

As the distance between the spacecraft widens, they will gain a stereoscopic perspective of the sun that will allow cameras and other instruments aboard the spacecraft to detect the direction in which any CMEs are traveling.

It's all to understand and predict how the sun works, said physicist Keith Goetz, the project manager. We want to be able to look at the surface of the sun and say, for example, 'There's going to be an eruption right there, in that spot.'