Scientists use satellites to mimic a total solar eclipse in space
Two European satellites have successfully manufactured artificial solar eclipses by maintaining a precise formation in space. This innovative technique offers scientists extended periods of totality on demand.
The European Space Agency unveiled images from these eclipses at the Paris Air Show on Monday. The pair of satellites, launched in late 2023, have been creating simulated solar eclipses since March, while orbiting thousands of miles above the Earth.
The satellites fly 492 feet (150 meters) apart. One satellite blocks the sun, mimicking the moon's role in a natural solar eclipse. The other satellite then focuses its telescope on the corona, the sun's outer atmosphere, which appears as a halo of light.
It's an intricate, prolonged dance requiring extreme precision by the cube-shaped spacecraft, less than 5 feet (1.5 meters) in size. Their flying accuracy needs to be within a mere millimeter, the thickness of a fingernail. This meticulous positioning is achieved autonomously through GPS navigation, star trackers, lasers and radio links.
Dubbed Proba-3, the $210 million mission has generated 10 successful solar eclipses so far during the ongoing checkout phase. The longest eclipse lasted five hours, said the Royal Observatory of Belgium's Andrei Zhukov, the lead scientist for the orbiting corona-observing telescope. He and his team are aiming for a wondrous six hours of totality per eclipse once scientific observations begin.
Scientists already are thrilled by the preliminary results that show the corona without the need for any special image processing, said Zhukov.
"We almost couldn't believe our eyes,' Zhukov said in an email. 'This was the first try, and it worked. It was so incredible.'
Zhukov anticipates an average of two solar eclipses per week being produced for a total of nearly 200 during the two-year mission, yielding more than 1,000 hours of totality. That will be a scientific bonanza since full solar eclipses produce just a few minutes of totality when the moon lines up perfectly between Earth and the sun — on average just once every 18 months.
The sun continues to mystify scientists, especially its corona, which is hotter than the solar surface. Coronal mass ejections result in billions of tons of plasma and magnetic fields being hurled out into space. Geomagnetic storms can result, disrupting power and communication while lighting up the night sky with auroras in unexpected locales.
While previous satellites have generated imitation solar eclipses — including the European Space Agency and NASA 's Solar Orbiter and Soho observatory — the sun-blocking disk was always on the same spacecraft as the corona-observing telescope. What makes this mission unique, Zhukov said, is that the sun-shrouding disk and telescope are on two different satellites and therefore far apart.
The distance between these two satellites will give scientists a better look at the part of the corona closest to the limb of the sun.
"We are extremely satisfied by the quality of these images, and again this is really thanks to formation flying' with unprecedented accuracy, ESA's mission manager Damien Galano said from the Paris Air Show.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
BBC News
22 minutes ago
- BBC News
Seagrass planted in River Tees estuary to revive lost meadow
Volunteers have planted hundreds of seagrass plants in the Tees Estuary after two failed attempts in recent Tees River Trust is using more mature plants this year after a previous effort was ruined by a storm and another by suspected human process began last August with volunteers collecting seeds which were then planted in January. They have now been placed in the estuary at Greatham manager Judy Power said the team hopes it will be third time lucky trying to get seagrass to grow in the Tees. The estuary is designated as a European Marine Site (EMS) and is home to seals, salmons and meadows have been declining globally at a rate of about 7% every year since 1990. The planting process took several days but was completed last week and an initial survey looks Power said: "The nursery is the only one of its kind in the North East."This is the third year of growing the plants and the team have already achieved one of the highest rates of germination in the UK."The trust has also installed two native oyster nurseries around Hartlepool and built a native oyster breeding pond. Follow BBC Tees on X, Facebook, Nextdoor and Instagram.
Daily Mirror
5 hours ago
- Daily Mirror
Scientists create artificial eclipses in bid to understand solar storms
The European Space Agency has spearheaded a £154 million effort to understand the Sun's corona, which could provide unprecedented insight into to processes behind solar storms Stunning new pictures have captured the delicate moment top scientists were able to recreate a solar eclipse by placing orbiting spacecraft within a fingernail's width of one another tens of thousands of miles above the Earth. The European Space Agency (ESA) launched two satellites into the atmosphere in March last year, making them dance across one another after they settled just 150 metres apart. The two craft had been meticilously placed to within a fingernail's width to create the ideal conditions for study, with scientists hailing "incredible" results from the staged intersection. Incredible pictures have captured the process - which promises to massively advance the world's understanding of its star - on camera. New pictures exhibited by the ESA at the Paris Air Show capture the two spacecraft as they float into position in outer space, with the sun seen in the background before they attempt the delicate atmospheric dance. Another picture from the agency shows the result, with green-hued waves seen shooting out from behind the satellites after they align. The ESA said the pictures were taken by one of the satellites, which was positioned direcly in front of the other as it blocked the Sun, catching its corona - the the star's outer atmosphere. The intricate, prolonged dance requires extreme precision by the cube-shaped spacecraft, which are less than five feet (1.5 metres) in size. Their flying accuracy needs to be within a millimeter, the thickness of a fingernail. The meticulous positioning is achieved autonomously through GPS navigation, star trackers, lasers and radio links, and the entire mission, Dubbed Proba-3, has set the ESA back a massive $210 million (£154 million). But it has generated 10 successful solar eclipses so far during the ongoing checkout phase, the longest of which lasted five hours. Andrei Zhukov of the Royal Observatory of Belgium, the lead scientist for the orbiting corona-observing telescope, said he and his team are aiming to make the clipse last six hours by the time scientific observations begin this coming July. But Mr Zhukov said scientists are already thrilled by the preliminary results that show the corona without the need for any special image processing. He told the Associated Press: "We almost couldn't believe our eyes. This was the first try, and it worked. It was so incredible." Mr Zhukov anticipates an average of two solar eclipses per week being produced for a total of nearly 200 during the two-year mission, yielding more than 1,000 hours of totality in total. Such a significant amount of time would give scientists an unprecedented opportunity to explore the sun's corona, which has mystified physicists for centuries. Full solar eclipses typically produce just a few minutes of totality when the moon lines up perfectly between Earth and the sun - on average just once every 18 months. Coronal mass ejections result in billions of tons of plasma and magnetic fields being hurled out into space, occasionally resulting in geomagnetic storms, which can have devastating effects on the Earth.
Times
6 hours ago
- Times
Enemies could weaponise new weather technologies against UK
Ministers are examining how technologies designed to combat global warming could be weaponised by hostile foreign powers. The government is working to understand the risks associated with an 'independent or third-party actor' carrying out so-called 'solar geoengineering'. The process, also known as solar radiation modification (SRM), aims to cool the earth artificially by reflecting sunlight away from the planet's surface. • We know how to cool the planet. Is it worth the risk? This can theoretically be achieved using two main techniques. The first involves shooting aerosols into the atmosphere that will bounce the sun's rays back into space. The second involves increasing the reflectivity of clouds over the ocean by spraying tiny droplets of sea water into the air. The UK government has tasked scientists with investigating the impact a large-scale deployment of these 'radical intervention measures'. In a ministerial letter first obtained by the Daily Telegraph, Kerry McCarthy, the climate minister, wrote: 'The UK is a longstanding leader on climate action and an active international collaborator in scientific research. The government recognises the need to understand the risks and impacts of [solar radiation modification] approaches that could be deployed by an independent or third-party actor. Robust scientific evidence is essential for informing responsible and inclusive governance.' • Hope to halt climate change by thickening Arctic sea ice These third-party agents could include countries taking action to lower their carbon emissions, according to experts. However, they could also be hostile nations such as Russia using solar geoengineering techniques to orchestrate environmental disasters against their enemies. Dan Marks, a research fellow in energy security at the Royal United Services Institute, said that worrying about the weaponisation of such technologies before they were fully understood was 'premature', but warned that it could be a factor in the long run. He said: 'If the technology exists, then it would be unusual if you look at a pattern of history of warfare for it not to be [weaponised]. Targeting agriculture and food, logistics infrastructure, water or other natural resources is common. • The new tech that could control Britain's weather 'Almost every country is vulnerable to some type of extreme weather, so if you can make that weather better with the technology, you can likely make it worse by deploying the technology at the opposite time.' Whether or not the technology could be used by combatants with a degree of plausible deniability was another important factor, he said. Marks cautioned that research was in its infancy, adding: 'I don't think this is something that's going to happen tomorrow and it's not clear if it can actually happen.' • The climate radicals who want to cool the planet with space mirrors and clouds He said that policing the initial civilian use of the technology would be a more pressing concern because 'weather systems don't stop at borders'. 'If a country decided to deploy that kind of technology [to mitigate climate change], then there is a real question of how do you treat that legally and diplomatically? 'Equally, what if an Elon Musk or an activist group decided to do it, and decided to do it in the middle of the ocean? How do you govern that?' Matt Ince, the associate director at Dragonfly Intelligence, said that governments had long been concerned about the potential for countries to use 'sun dimming technology' unilaterally to combat the most extreme effects of climate change. He said that the new emerging threat was 'some sort of intentionally orchestrated environmental disaster', which is an 'avenue that Russia may pursue'. 'On the more imaginative end of the spectrum it's feasible it could involve deliberately trying to use solar geoengineering technologies to destabilise the climate within a European state and create chaos and a sense of discord, and force countries to become more inward focused,' he told the Daily Telegraph. Critics of the proposed approaches argue that there are unknown risks and they distract from global efforts to reduce emissions. More than 560 academics have signed an open letter calling for an 'international non-use agreement' on solar geoengineering. The letter states: 'Without effective global and democratic controls, the geopolitics of possible unilateral deployment of solar geoengineering would be frightening and inequitable.' The UK government's position is not to deploy solar radiation modification or any climate cooling approaches, but it has commissioned teams of scientists to research the technology and identify any risks with using it. Aria, the government's advanced research and invention agency, is providing more than £50 million in funding for outdoor field trials, which include 'brightening clouds' to reflect sunshine as a potential way to prevent climate change. Aria said: 'The only long-term solution to climate change is rapid decarbonisation and that must remain the priority. But regardless of emissions cuts, there is growing concern we may pass tipping points in the Earth's system. 'Aria's programme is focused on generating fundamental scientific knowledge about whether any proposed climate cooling approaches could ever be safe or feasible — or whether they should be ruled out entirely.' The government said: 'The government is not in favour of using Solar Radiation Modification, but we support cautious, controlled research aimed at improving our understanding of its risks and impacts. 'The government supports Aria's mission to fund high-risk, high-reward transformational research programmes with long-term benefits.
