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 fascinating pictures of the Sun's corona, the outermost part of our star's atmosphere, something that's generally speaking only possible during a natural solar eclipse.
The first "Occulter" satellite's 4.6-foot disc cast a three-inch shadow onto the Association of Spacecraft for Polarimetric and Imaging Investigation of the Corona of the Sun (ASPIICS) instrument mounted to the second "Coronagraph" satellite, allowing it to get an uninterrupted view of the Sun's corona.
The spectacular satellite dance could give researchers new ways to study solar wind, or the continuous flow of particles from the Sun. It could also give them new views of coronal mass ejections, powerful explosions of plasma and magnetic fields that have been linked to radio blackouts and GPS outages here on Earth.
"It is exciting to see these stunning images validate our technologies in what is now the world's first precision formation flying mission," said ESA director of technology Dietmar Pilz in a statement.
Researchers behind the stunt are excited to gather even more images and data of the Sun's corona.
"I was absolutely thrilled to see the images, especially since we got them on the first try," ASPIICS principal investigator Andrei Zhukov added. "Now we are working on extending the observation time to six hours in every orbit."
"Each full image — covering the area from the occulted Sun all the way to the edge of the field of view – is actually constructed from three images," he explained. "Combining the three images gives us the full view of the corona."
Best of all, Zhukov and his colleagues found that the satellites' "'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," he added, "while total solar eclipses only occur naturally around once, very rarely twice a year."
Scientists are already excited about the glut of new observations that could greatly enhance existing research into the Sun's atmosphere, including efforts to use computer simulations to predict future patterns.
"This huge flow of observations will help refine computer models further as we compare and adjust variables to match the real images," said ESA space weather modeling coordinator Jorge Amaya in the statement.
More on solar eclipses: Here's What NASA's Rovers See During an Eclipse on Mars
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
29 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Scientists Detect Radio Burst From Deepest Space, Then Realize It's Just A Satellite, Then Realize The Satellite Was Signaling From Beyond The Grave
A scientific paper was recently published on Cornell University's arXiv describing a radio burst that lasted for a mere 30 nanoseconds. Maybe that doesn't sound too exciting, except that the signal was thought to come from another galaxy. But then it turned out it was just from a satellite. But then it turned out that the satellite had been dead for decades and couldn't actually produce a transmission like that. So now it's a story about a zombie satellite sending impossible messages from beyond the grave, in space. Interested yet? In June 2024, the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) radio telescope detected what was thought to be a fast radio burst (FRB). Makes sense, as that was exactly what the telescope was trying to find. From reporting by FRBs remain something of a mystery even 20 years after their discovery, which of course just make scientists want to study them more. So detecting one was pretty great... until the team examining the find realized that the FRB made no sense at all. For one thing, the signal was too short — FRBs typically last micro- or milliseconds, not mere nanoseconds. Yes, those time frames are all incredibly small, but they are orders of magnitude apart. The radio telescope's image of it was also very fuzzy, which, like with a normal camera, indicated that the source was actually very, very close, not in a distant galaxy, where other FRB signals were from. What on Earth (or off it) was going on? Well, the answer turned out to be very boring, right before it got incredibly weird. Read more: These Cars Are Going To Age Terribly Once scientists had worked out the exact origin position of the signal, they realized that it was actually so close to Earth that it might well be a satellite, per New Scientist. They cross-referenced with known orbits, and sure enough, one popped up. Ah, darn, just a satellite then. No big deal — hey wait, is that satellite dead? Yes, and not just dead, but long dead. NASA's Relay 2 was in fact one of the first ever satellites, launched all the way back in 1964 at the dawn of the space age. Along with its sister Relay 1, these were experimental communications satellites intended to map the Van Allen radiation belt, per our friends at Gizmodo. Then in June 1967 (everything in this story happens in June, weird), the transponders failed, and that was the end of that. Except, now it isn't. Apparently the long-dead experimental communications satellite decided to get very experimental with its communications, since it sent out a radio burst all of a sudden. If you're wondering how a dead satellite can do that, you're not alone, because no one knows for sure. In fact, the on-board equipment is not even capable of transmitting a 30 nanosecond pulse. Rising from the grave to send impossible messages? What is this, space Ouija? In their scientific paper, the team theorizes one of two possible explanations, as lays out. First is that an electrostatic discharge (ESD) might have built up, causing a brief spark that caused a radio burst. Think of rubbing your hand along a carpet, then touching something metal. In space, the "carpet" would be ionized gas or plasma, so if Relay 2 passed through some of that, it might have sparked. This has actually been observed before, but again, at much longer timescales than 30 nanoseconds, which might count against this theory. If it does prove to be true, it actually has some practical value. ESDs are known to cause damage to satellites, but they are difficult to detect. Possibly, these scientists have stumbled on a way to detect them, making it easier to diagnose a faulty satellite. The second theory, as if this all couldn't get any better, was that the zombie satellite was actually hit by a teeny tiny micrometeorite traveling at 44,000 mph. This little hypothetical guy would only be a few micrograms, but if it struck Relay 2, it would create a puff of charged plasma, which is what the radio telescope would have detected. Both of these are still just theories, and really, nobody knows for sure. If you think that space necromancers must surely be involved, I wouldn't doubt it. It all just goes to show that space is a vast, weird place, and even our brightest minds are still only just scratching the surface of all it has to tell us. Want more like this? Join the Jalopnik newsletter to get the latest auto news sent straight to your inbox... Read the original article on Jalopnik.
Yahoo
35 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Engineered E. Coli Transforms Waste Plastic Into Common Painkiller
New research has made encouraging progress in tackling not one but two of the biggest problems facing our planet right now: plastic pollution and the use of fossil fuels as part of drug manufacturing processes. Scientists from the University of Edinburgh in the UK have used Escherichia coli bacteria to convert molecules from the widely used polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastic into the painkiller acetaminophen (also known as paracetamol). Like a lot of drugs today, acetaminophen is mostly made out of fossil fuels. Switching those ingredients for waste products – like plastic – could offer an ingenious way of addressing two major environmental problems in one. It's going to take a while to scale this up and prove it can be effective at an industrially and commercially viable level, so we shouldn't get too far ahead of ourselves, but there's a lot of potential in the new technology. "This work demonstrates that PET plastic isn't just waste or a material destined to become more plastic – it can be transformed by microorganisms into valuable new products, including those with potential for treating disease," says biotechnologist Stephen Wallace from the University of Edinburgh. The process starts by chemically degrading PET bottles. The resulting molecules are then fed to engineered E. coli, which use phosphate as a catalyst to convert the molecules into an organic compound containing nitrogen. Finally, these compounds are turned into the active ingredient of acetaminophen. Among the numerous advantages of the process are that it can be completed in 24 hours in a compact laboratory setup, and that it works at room temperature, so there's no need for excessive heating or cooling. What's more, the team has managed to get it working at an impressively efficient 92-percent yield. The reaction makes use of a well-established chemical reaction called the Lossen rearrangement, named after German chemist Wilhelm Lossen, who discovered it in 1872. Here, the reaction is made biocompatible so it can work in cells and living bacteria. Related: This was all done using PET bottles, but the plastic is also used extensively in food packaging, furniture, and manufacturing. This type of plastic is estimated to account for more than 350 million tons of waste per year, adding to the plastic pollution burden. The same approach might also work for other types of bacteria and other types of plastic, according to the researchers, so there's potential here for more environmentally friendly recycling and drug production options. It's a powerful example of how both natural and synthetic chemistry can be combined to find solutions to problems and drive innovation, and it may ultimately mean that E. coli plays a part in the production of our pain relief in the future. "Nature has evolved an exquisite yet limited set of chemical reactions that underpin the function of all living organisms," write the researchers. "By contrast, the field of synthetic organic chemistry can access reactivity not observed in nature, and integration of these abiotic reactions within living systems offers an elegant solution to the sustainable synthesis of many industrial chemicals from renewable feedstocks." The research has been published in Nature Chemistry. The Human Epoch Doesn't Officially Exist. But We Know When It Began. Flesh-Eating Fly Invasion Could Cause Devastation Across America Ocean Acidity Has Reached Critical Levels, And We're All Under Threat
Yahoo
35 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Burial Vault Sealed For 400 Years Found at End of Long-Forgotten Staircase
After a disastrous 1970s renovation, archaeologists tasked with assessing decades of damage have stumbled upon unexpected layers of history in France's Saint-Philibert Church. The 12th-century church is the only structure in the city of Dijon built 'in the manner of the Romans'. It was decommissioned following the French revolution, and was used as a storehouse for salt in the mid-20th century, which wrought damage on the stone structure. As part of a misguided attempt to restore the church in 1974, a heated concrete slab was installed, which drew up further water and salt into the groaning structure, splitting stones apart. The concrete slab has since been removed, and in what started as a new restoration effort, archaeologists from the National Institute for Preventive Archaeological Research (INRAP) have found quite a trove. Beneath the slab, they found a long-forgotten staircase that led to a burial vault that's been sealed for at least 400 years. This is the final resting place of dozens of individuals, possible casualties of a catastrophic event like a pandemic or famine. Related: "In the transept, a vault, probably dating from the 15th to 16th centuries, has been identified," INRAP researchers state in a translated press release. "In it, the deceased, both children and adults, are buried in coffins, the bones of each individual being pushed to the sides to make room for the last deceased." The excavation has revealed further layers of history, including slab tombs from the 11th to 13th centuries and sarcophagi that date back to the 6th century. "Planned to extend to a depth of three meters, the excavation has revealed remains dating from Late Antiquity to the modern era," the team states. Confirmed: New Mexico Footprints Rewrite Timeline of Humans in America Video: How Far Away Would You Need to Be to Survive a Nuclear Blast? What Really Killed The Neanderthals? A Space Physicist Has a Radical Idea
