How scientists created an ‘artificial' total solar eclipse to unlock the Sun's secrets
The European Space Agency (ESA) on June 16, announced that the Proba-3 mission had created an 'artificial total solar eclipse' in orbit. This was achieved as the mission's two spacecraft – the Coronagraph and the Occulter – flew in formation 150 metres apart, and aligned so that the Occulter's disc covered the sun's disc, casting a shadow onto the Coronagraph's optical instrument.
'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 in a statement.
The mission was launched in December 2024. It involved sending both satellites into the solar orbit. In March this year, both spacecraft flew 150 metres apart, in formation up to to a millimetre's precision, without control from the Earth for several hours.
When creating the artificial solar eclipse, the satellites aligned in formation based on the position of the Sun. Then, Occulter's 1.4-metre large disc would be used to block the sun's disc. This would cast a shadow of approximately 8 centimetre, across the Coronagraph's optical instruments, positioned behind the Occulter. Thanks to the precision, these instruments were able to provide the images of the corona.
'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,' Zhukov explained.
This mission could prove crucial for solar scientists, with previously unseen angles of the elusive corona becoming available for study. One benefit could be the study of solar wind, described by the ESA as 'the continuous flow of matter from the Sun into outer space.' Driven by the corona, these winds usually consist of charged particles, and constantly rain down upon the Earth as well.
However, this can be interrupted by coronal mass ejections (CMEs), or solar storms. This subsequently affects space weather, which in turn can affect Earth's power grids, communication systems, and satellite operations.
With the data from the Proba-3 mission and any subsequent missions focused on corona imaging, solar scientists can be better prepared for the potential threat of a severe solar storm – which NASA describes as 'a sudden explosion of particles, energy, magnetic fields, and material blasted into the solar system by the Sun'.
Another question that Proba-3 would be able to solve is how the corona, which extends millions of miles across space, but still reaches temperatures above a million degrees Celsius, burns much hotter than the surface. To understand the reasoning, Proba-3 is attempting to study the corona at a minimal distance from the sun's surface.
Due to the quality of the equipment, fewer stray rays would hit the detector, more details would be captured, and fainter features would be detected as compared to a traditional coronagraph.
'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,' Jorge Amaya, Space Weather Modelling Coordinator at ESA, said in the ESA release.
Alongside the key data provided by Proba-3, its precision flying in formation also paved the way for future missions, such as the ESA's Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA), scheduled to launch in 2035. This mission will contain three identical spacecraft, arranged in an equilateral triangle formation, trailing behind the Earth in its orbit around the Sun.
The mission is scheduled to last two years, aiming to capture images of the corona for further study, and then re-enter the Earth's atmosphere five years post-launch, as per the ESA.
(This article has been curated by Purv Ashar, who is an intern with The Indian Express)
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Time of India
5 hours ago
- Time of India
NASA alert! 120-foot airplane-sized asteroid 2025 MM to make closest flyby on Earth today; should we be concerned
Asteroid 2025 MM: Star gazers and astronomers are pointing to an airplane-sized asteroid 2025 MM , which will have a close but safe flyby of Earth this week. Notwithstanding its closeness, authorities assure us that there is no threat to our planet Earth. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now Moving at high velocity and on a well-tracked path, the asteroid will fly by at a comfortable distance. Events like these offer a reminder of space's unpredictable nature and the importance of ongoing sky surveillance. While 2025 MM poses no immediate threat, its flyby underscores the need for scientific vigilance in tracking objects that share our celestial neighbourhood. Asteroid 2025 MM to make closest approach on July 01, 2025: Speed and distance The asteroid is forecast to reach its nearest point to Earth on July 1, traveling at a distance of about 1.29 million kilometers (about 800,000 miles). Although this is close in cosmic terms, it's over three times farther away from Earth than the Moon is. Asteroid 2025 MM is traveling at a speed of approximately 23,874 miles per hour (38,428 kilometers per hour). Traveling this speed, it would take under two hours to orbit Earth if it were in a state of orbit. This is normal for near-Earth objects, which are drawn into the Sun's gravity and orbital dynamics as they move about the inner solar system. Its high velocity and regular path made it simpler for space agencies to simulate its orbit and ensure that it would safely pass by our planet. How large is asteroid 2025 MM Asteroid 2025 MM is approximately 120 feet (36 meters) in diameter—similar to the wingspan of a Boeing 737 plane. While fairly small in cosmic perspective, it's large enough to be seriously considered by planetary defense specialists. Asteroids of this magnitude can do tremendous harm if they come into Earth's atmosphere or collide with the planet's surface. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now Yet with 2025 MM, it will pass safely by, providing experts with an opportunity to observe it without risk. Why Aten asteroids like 2025 MM are important to scientists 2025 MM is part of the Aten family of asteroids, which are known to have orbits that are generally within Earth's orbit around the Sun. The orbits of these asteroids normally cross Earth's orbit and hence are very significant to track. Though Aten asteroids are normally seen close to Earth, not all of them are hazardous. NASA actually has a set of parameters by which they check if an asteroid is even likely to be hazardous. Asteroid 2025 MM: Is it considered dangerous NASA has confirmed that asteroid 2025 MM is not classified as a 'Potentially Hazardous Object' (PHO). According to NASA's Planetary Defense Coordination Office, an asteroid must be: Larger than 150 meters (492 feet) in diameter, and Come within 7.4 million kilometers (4.6 million miles) of Earth to qualify as potentially hazardous. With its smaller size (120 feet) and more distant path, 2025 MM doesn't come anywhere close to either threshold. Yet it serves as a reminder that even small space rocks are worth closely monitoring, particularly since even minor changes in orbit could potentially present future hazards. Why scientists are still keeping an eye on it While 2025 MM will not strike Earth, scientists still track it using powerful telescopes and radar. This is owing to the fact that asteroid paths can alter over time as a result of numerous influences: Solar radiation inducing slow drift (referred to as the Yarkovsky effect) Collision or fragmentation occurrences within the asteroid belt Even a small deviation in path would lead to an asteroid coming in closer in a subsequent orbit. That is why continuous monitoring and path forecasting models are essential in planetary defense operations. Asteroid 2025 MM highlights the need for constant vigilance While asteroid 2025 MM will pass safely by Earth, its visit is a sobering reminder of the dynamic and capricious nature of space. Our solar system is teeming with millions of asteroids and comets, several of which make their way across our planet's path without us even realizing it. Asteroid 2025 MM poses no near-term threat, but it does underscore the absolute necessity of careful skygazing and scientific foresight. The heavens are full of marvels—and sometimes, possible threats—and being at the head of the curve may one day prove to be the difference between life and death. Also Read |
News18
7 hours ago
- News18
Project Hail Mary Trailer: Ryan Gosling Is On A Mission To Save Earth
Directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, Project Hail Mary is set to hit the theatres across India on March 20, 2026. The trailer of the action-packed sci-fi adventure, Project Hail Mary, is finally out. In the much-anticipated film from Amazon MGM Studios, Ryan Gosling takes on the lead role of Ryland Grace. Directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, the film is set to hit the theatres across India on March 20, 2026. It is based on the bestselling novel by Andy Weir. The trailer introduces Ryan Gosling as Ryland Grace – a lone astronaut, actually a middle school science teacher, who wakes up on a spaceship far from Earth. To add to this, he has no memory of himself and knows nothing about why he is on the spacecraft. As Grace gradually recollects the past moments, he begins to uncover being a part of a mission: Project Hail Mary, to save Earth from a dying sun. As a part of his mission, Grace must travel 11.9 light years away to a star that is immune to the substance causing the sun to die out. The reason? There is a hope that the star has the solution to save everything on Earth from extinction. Project Hail Mary stars Ryan Gosling alongside Sandra Hüller as Eva Stratt. Eva is a European Space Agency official who recruits Grace for the mission as she believes that he can solve this galactic mystery, given his background in molecular biology. Joining Ryan Gosling and Sandra are Milana Vayntrub, Ken Leung and Lionel Boyce, adding to the star-studded cast. There's also a surprise alien friend who extends his helping hand during Grace's deep-space journey. Directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, Project Hail Mary is produced by Amy Pascal, Phil Lord, Christopher Miller, Aditya Sood, Rachel O'Connor, Andy Weir and Ryan Gosling. It is written by Drew Goddard, who also wrote the screenplay for The Martian. During a CinemaCon appearance earlier this year, Ryan Gosling called the film 'an insanely ambitious story that's massive in scope." He added, 'It seemed really hard to make, and that's kind of our bag … This is why we go to the movies. And I'm not just saying it because I'm in it. I'm also saying it because I'm a producer on the film." Interestingly, the project marks another spacefaring role for Gosling, who previously was seen playing Neil Armstrong in First Man. First Published:
Indian Express
10 hours ago
- Indian Express
From James Webb to Euclid, here are top 10 most powerful space telescopes
One of the many breakthroughs of the scientific community remains the invention of space telescopes — telescopes that orbit above the Earth's atmosphere to observe the Universe (planets, stars, galaxies) closely with significant clarity. These telescopes have an important advantage over ground-based telescopes in that they have access to a wider electromagnetic spectrum, enabling them to detect the wavelengths of light (such as X-rays, gamma rays, infrared) which generally gets absorbed or reflected by the Earth's atmosphere, Las Cumbres Observatory stated. The first ever space telescope, the Orbiting Astronomical Observatory 2 (OAO-2), was launched into the low Earth orbit in 1968 aboard an Atlas-Centaur rocket, as per the National Space Centre. For the next four years following its placement, as per the Centre, the OAO-2 beamed data back to scientists on Earth, including the first observations of astronomical objects in ultraviolet light. There are more than 30 space telescopes which are currently active, and here, we take a look at the 10 most powerful of them: 1. James Webb Space Telescope Launched in the year 2021, the James Webb Space Telescope is the largest and the most powerful observatory, as per the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). One of the most significant endeavours of the Webb telescopes include studying every phase in the history of our Universe, which ranges from the first luminous glows after the Big Bang, to the formation of solar systems capable of supporting life on planets like Earth, to the evolution of our own Solar System, as per NASA. The Space Administration has referred to the Webb as the 'premier observatory of the next decade'. The telescope observes the cosmos in infrared using highly sensitive instruments. The agencies overlooking the JWST are NASA, European Space Agency (ESA) and the Canadian Spaece Agency (CSA). 2. Hubble Space Telescope Launched in April 1990, the Hubble Space telescope has proven to be a testament to the revolutionary scientific instruments that have propelled our understanding with their remarkable discoveries. Its design, technology and serviceability have made it one of NASA's most transformative observatories, NASA's website states hailing the telescope's achievements. From determining the atmospheric composition of planets around other stars to discovering dark energy, Hubble has changed humanity's understanding of the universe, the website added. Operated by the agencies NASA and ESA, the Hubble observes the cosmos in untraviolet, visible and near-infrared, from the low Earth orbit. 3. Chandra X-ray observatory Launched in the year 1999, the Chandra X-ray observatory, NASA's flagship mission for X-ray astronomy, detects X-ray emissions from very hot regions of the universe such as exploded stars, clusters of galaxies, and matter around black holes, as per the website. Operated solely by NASA, it is the 'most powerful X-ray telescope, with eight times the resolution of any previous X-ray telescope and able to detect sources more than 20 times fainter,' the website describes. Here are some mind-blowing facts about the Chandra observatory, according to the Harvard University: – Chandra can observe X-rays from particles up to the last second before they fall into a black hole. – At 45 feet long, Chandra is the largest satellite the shuttle has ever launched. – The electrical power required to operate the Chandra spacecraft and instruments is 2 kilowatts, about the same power as your hair dryer. – STS-93, the space mission that deployed Chandra, was the first NASA shuttle mission commanded by a woman. 4. Spitzer Space Telescope Launched in 2003, the Spitzer Space Telescope was the final mission in NASA's Great Observatories Program — a unit of four space-based observatories, each observing the Universe in a different kind of light, as per the Caltech's Cosmos website. Spitzer, though retired in 2020, continues to remain the most influential as it allowed scientists to peek into cosmic regions which were hidden when observed through optical telescopes. Operated by NASA, its observations, in infrared light, included dusty stellar nurseries, centers of galaxies, and starlight from very distant galaxies at the edge of the Universe. 5. Planck Space Observatory Planck was ESA's first mission to study the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB), the relic radiation from the Big Bang, which occurred about 14 thousand million years ago, according to the operator's website. Launched in 2009, Planck measured the temperature variations across the microwave background with much better sensitivity, angular resolution and frequency range than any previous satellite, giving astronomers an unprecedented view of our Universe when it was extremely young, just 300 000 years old, the website highlighted. Planck worked perfectly for 30 months, completing five full-sky surveys with both its instruments. Able to work at slightly higher temperatures than HFI, the Low Frequency Instrument (LFI) continued to survey the sky for a large part of 2013, providing even more data to improve the Planck final results, before being turned off later that year, as per the ESA website. 6. Gaia Launched in 2013, Gaia has made more than three trillion observations of two billion stars and other objects throughout our Milky Way galaxy and beyond, mapping their motions, luminosity, temperature and composition, the European Space Agency highlighted over its website. The telescope's extraordinarily precise three-dimensional map will provide the data needed to tackle an enormous range of important questions related to the origin, structure and evolutionary history of our galaxy. While the telescope ended its observations this year in January, the telescope was responsible for creating a 3D map of over 1 billion stars in the Milky Way, leading the ESA, its operator, to call it the 'billion star surveyor.' 7. Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope is a powerful space observatory that detects gamma rays, the most energetic form of light, the NAS website states. Launched in 2008, Fermi enables scientists to address questions revolving around 'crushed stellar remnants like pulsars and the origin of high-energy charged particles called cosmic rays to stellar explosions known as gamma-ray bursts,' it stated. As per NASA's observations, Fermi data has revealed a vast new component of our galaxy known as the Fermi Bubbles, a structure that spans 50,000 light-years and likely formed as a result of an outburst from the monster black hole at the center of our galaxy. According to the National Space Centre, Fermi was initially expected to operate (under NASA) for five years, but the mission has been extended with no signs of stopping any time soon. 8. TESS (Transiting Exoplant Survey Satellite) Launched in 2018 as a follow-up to Kepler, NASA's TESS is responsible for discovering exoplanets, that is, worlds beyond our solar system. During the course of its extended observations of the sky under optical wavelengths, TESS finds and monitors all types of objects that change in brightness, from nearby asteroids to pulsating stars and distant galaxies containing supernovae. In July 2020, TESS finished its primary mission, imaging about 75 per cent of the starry sky as part of a two-year-long survey, the NASA website highlighted. While capturing this giant mosaic, TESS found 66 new exoplanets. 9. Euclid Space Telescope Euclid is an ESA (European Space Agency) mission with critical contributions from NASA that aims to explore two of the biggest mysteries about the universe today: dark matter and dark energy, the NASA website highlighted. To study the evolution of the 'dark universe,' Euclid will make a 3D map of the universe, it added. It will do so by observing billions of galaxies out to 10 billion light-years, across more than a third of the sky. Recently launched in 2023, Euclid is designed to tackle some of the most pertinent questions related to the Universe, including, what is the structure and history of the cosmic web? How has the expansion of the Universe changed over time? What is the nature of dark matter and dark energy? The telescope observes the cosmos in visible and near-infrared light. The mission's lifetime is six years, with the possibility of extension, as per the ESA website. 10. XRISM (X-ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission) NASA has partnering with JAXA (Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency) on the XRISM mission to study celestial objects that emit X-rays, its website stated. Launched in 2023, the mission aims to investigate big cosmic questions such as how the largest structures in the universe came to be, what happens to matter under extreme gravitational force, and how high-energy particle jets work. It's purpose involves studying the dynamics of hot gas in galaxy clusters, and black holes. In one of its significant breakthroughs, XRISM has managed to capture the most detailed portrait yet of gases flowing within Cygnus X-3, one of the most studied sources in the X-ray sky, according to NASA.
