US EditionESA's Proba-3 Creates First Artificial Solar Eclipse in Space
FRANCE, JUN 18 – Proba-3's twin satellites create up to 50 artificial eclipses yearly, enabling continuous study of the Sun's corona to improve understanding and space weather prediction.
- In December 2024, the European Space Agency's Proba-3 mission was launched aboard a PSLV-XL rocket from the launch facility located at Satish Dhawan in India to simulate solar eclipses in space.
- This mission follows Solar Orbiter's earlier discovery of the sun's poles and aims to overcome the rarity and short duration of natural solar eclipses by using two satellites flying 150 meters apart.
- Proba-3's twin satellites, the Occulter and the Coronagraph, performed millimeter-precision maneuvers to align and block the sun's disk, revealing the corona in unprecedented detail.
- Damien Galano expressed great satisfaction with the clarity of the images captured, noting that the mission has successfully completed ten artificial eclipses and is targeting totality periods lasting up to six hours.
- The mission will provide continuous, high-resolution monitoring of the sun's outer atmosphere, enhancing knowledge of the streams of charged particles and large expulsions of plasma that influence space weather and conditions on Earth.
213 Articles
213 Articles
ESA's New Mission Can See a Solar Eclipse Every Day
Solar eclipses are beautiful, but they're a valuable chance to study the Sun's atmosphere as its surface is blocked by the Moon. Now, ESA can generate artificial solar eclipses from space with the Proba-3 mission. The two satellites fly in formation 150 meters apart. One spacecraft occults the Sun, while the other observes the faint solar corona. They can produce a new 6-hour eclipse every 19.6-hour orbit around the Earth. Solar eclipses on dema…
ESA Just Faked a Solar Eclipse – And Caught the Sun’s Hidden Halo
ESA’s Proba-3 mission has achieved a spacefaring marvel: two satellites flying in perfect formation to mimic total solar eclipses on demand. Their first artificial eclipse delivered breathtaking images of the Sun’s outer atmosphere, offering scientists an unprecedented glimpse into the solar corona. These images not only deepen our understanding of solar storms and coronal mysteries [...]
Scientists Line Up Satellites to Create "Artificial Total Solar Eclipse"
Two satellites just carefully lined up to form a perfect "artificial total solar eclipse" in orbit. Earlier this year, the two probes, which are part of the European Space Agency's Proba-3 mission, positioned themselves in a perfect line 492 feet apart to have one of them perfectly obfuscate the Sun's rays. Impressively, they were able to maintain their position with an accuracy down to the millimeter. The outermost satellite then snapped fascin…
When flying 150 meters away, two satellites simulated 10 artificial solar eclipses. While one blockes the sun like the moon, the other points the telescope to the crown that forms the golden aura.
A solar eclipse is rare. However, a European satellite pair artificially created it in space to enable new insights into the solar corona.A solar eclipse is rare. However, a European satellite pair artificially created it in space to enable new insights into the solar corona.
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