Satellites align to create 'artificial total solar eclipse,' photos show
Two European satellites created an "artificial total solar eclipse" in space, the European Space Agency announced June 16, delivering data that will improve scientists' understanding of the sun and its atmosphere.
The agency said the satellites, named Coronagraph and Occulter, flew 429 feet apart in perfect formation for "several hours" without being controlled from the ground to create the artificial eclipse. The Proba-3 mission, according to the agency, helps scientists examine the sun's corona to study solar winds, the continuous flow of matter from the sun into outer space, and the workings of coronal mass ejections.
"It is exciting to see these stunning images validate our technologies in what is now the world's first precision formation flying mission," Dietmar Pilz, European Space Agency's director of technology, engineering, and quality, said in a news release.
The mission has created 10 artificial eclipses so far, with the longest being five hours, lead scientist Andrei Zhukov told The Associated Press.
"We almost couldn't believe our eyes," Zhukov, who works for the Royal Observatory of Belgium, told the news organization service. "This was the first try, and it worked. It was so incredible."
During the eclipses, the ASPIICS optical instrument on the Coronagraph captured images of the solar corona while the Occulter blocked out the sun's light.
The images were processed by the ASPIICS Science Operations Center at the Royal Observatory of Belgium, where a team of scientists created photos of the corona based on input from the scientific community.
"Current coronagraphs are no match for Proba-3, which will observe the sun's corona down almost to the edge of the solar surface. So far, this was only possible during natural solar eclipses," said Jorge Amaya, space weather modelling coordinator at the European Space Agency.
The agency added that the Proba-3 mission's images will help computer modeling of the sun's corona.
Amaya pointed to an already completed simulation of Proba-3's first observations, and the agency said that the data could help "offer a comprehensive image of the solar phenomena impacting our planet and help citizens and industry prepare against them."
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: European satellites create an artificial eclipse in space
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A medium-sized solar flare and a coronal mass ejection erupt from the sun in July 2017. The space agency Proba-3's goal for a recent mission was to observe the sun's corona, which the agency said is important for studying solar wind and understanding coronal mass ejections. Photo courtesy of NASA | License Photo June 17 (UPI) -- A European space agency created the first "artificial total solar eclipse" using a pair of satellites on Tuesday. The space agency Proba-3 showed the first images of the Sun's outer atmosphere -- the solar corona. In its announcement, the agency said that this will help improve the understanding of the sun and its atmosphere. A pair of spacecrafts was used, the Coronagraph and the Occulter. They flew 492 feet apart for several hours without any control from the ground to create an artificial total solar eclipse's orbit. The two satellites use an optical instrument to take photos of the sun's corona. The agency's goal for this mission was to observe the sun's corona, which the agency said is important for studying solar wind and understanding coronal mass ejections. "Many of the technologies which allowed Proba-3 to perform precise formation flying have been developed through ESA's General Support Technology Program, as has the mission itself. It is exciting to see these stunning images validate our technologies in what is now the world's first precision formation flying mission," Dietmar Pilz, ESA director of Technology, Engineering and Quality said. "I was absolutely thrilled to see the images, especially since we got them on the first try," Andrei Zhukov, principal investigator for ASPIICS at the Royal Observatory of Belgium said. "Our 'artificial eclipse' images are comparable with those taken during a natural eclipse. The difference is that we can create our eclipse once every 19.6-hour orbit, while total solar eclipses only occur naturally around once, very rarely twice a year. On top of that, natural total eclipses only last a few minutes, while Proba-3 can hold its artificial eclipse for up to 6 hours," said Zhukov. The Proba-3 mission is led by ESA, managed by Spain's Sener, with more than 29 companies from 14 countries involved.
