Two European satellites have created the first artificial solar eclipses by flying in precise formation, enabling scientists to study the sun’s outer atmosphere for hours—on demand.
The European Space Agency (ESA) released the first images during the Paris Air Show on Monday. Launched in late 2023, the pair of cube-shaped satellites, each under 5 feet (1.5 meters) in size, have been simulating eclipses since March while orbiting tens of thousands of miles above Earth.
Flying just 492 feet (150 meters) apart, one satellite blocks the sun—like the moon during a natural eclipse—while the other captures images of the sun’s corona, the halo-like outer atmosphere. The formation flying requires extreme precision, with positioning accurate to within a millimeter. This is achieved autonomously using GPS, lasers, star trackers, and radio links.
Dubbed Proba-3, the $210 million mission has successfully generated 10 artificial eclipses during its current testing phase. “The longest eclipse lasted five hours,” said Andrei Zhukov of the Royal Observatory of Belgium, lead scientist for the mission. “We almost couldn’t believe our eyes. This was the first try, and it worked. It was so incredible.” Scientific operations are set to begin in July, with hopes of achieving up to six hours of totality per eclipse.
Unlike previous missions where the sun-blocking disk and observing telescope were on the same spacecraft, Proba-3 uses two separate satellites, enhancing visibility of the corona closest to the sun's edge. “We are extremely satisfied by the quality of these images, and again this is really thanks to formation flying,” said ESA mission manager Damien Galano.
Zhukov expects about two eclipses per week, totalling nearly 200 and over 1,000 hours of totality during the two-year mission—far exceeding the few minutes available during natural eclipses. The goal: better understanding of the mysterious, superheated corona and coronal mass ejections that can trigger geomagnetic storms, disrupting communications and power while lighting skies with auroras.
Source: AP
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