European satellites succeed in creating artificial solar eclipse
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.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Washington Post
27 minutes ago
- Washington Post
Rare object from beyond our solar system spotted zipping around Earth
A newly discovered interstellar object is hurtling around us, only the third such interloper to be observed in our solar system. The object is not expected to pose an impact risk to Earth, but telescopes around the world have been able to detect the mystery visitor. The object — provisionally known as A11pl3Z — gained attention on Tuesday when it was spotted by telescopes for NASA's early warning system for asteroid impacts. Shortly after the discovery, amateur and professional astronomers looked through archival images and found it in earlier data from June. More than 100 observations have been made of the object, including from telescopes in Chile and Arizona. The object is traveling fast, speeding at our solar system at about 245,000 kilometers per hour relative to the sub, according to astronomer Josep M. Trigo Rodríguez. It is currently located just inside the orbit of Jupiter. The object — which will get a new name when it is approved and published by the Minor Planet Center — is currently 528 million kilometers from Earth (roughly the the distance it would take to travel from Earth to the moon 1,370 times.) It's uncertain if the object — appearing very faint at the moment — is a comet or asteroid at this time, according to scientists on Minor Planet mailing list. But the observations so far have helped track the object's journey, indicating it likely came from outside of the solar system from a thin galactic disk. The object could between 12 miles (20 kilometers) to 25 miles (40 kilometers) wide, according to various scientists. Marshall Eubanks, chief scientist at Space Initiatives Inc., estimated it could come close enough to Mars in early October to be observed by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, although it would be only about 0.2 pixels wide. It is expected to reach its closest point to the sun later around October 29, reaching a distance about twice as far as Earth is from the sun. This is the third interstellar object to be observed in our solar system, with the other two found in the past decade. In 2017, scientists observed the first interstellar object known as Oumuamua, appearing rocky and cigar-shaped. Although it puzzled scientists because it didn't quite fit the definition of an asteroid or comet. In 2019, scientists saw our second interstellar visitor, comet 2I/Borisov. Part of the recent discoveries may be chalked up to more observations over time and a significantly improved capability to scan the skies, scientists said on the list serv. Such discoveries may become more commonplace with the surveys from the Vera Rubin Observatory, which has already found thousands of new asteroids in just 10 hours of operation. Compared to the other two previously found objects, A11pl3Z has a unique orbit. It has a very extreme hyperbolic trajectory through the solar system (or a high eccentricity) — meaning it won't be coming back to our solar system once it leaves. More observations will help scientists determine the object's path through our solar system, where it came from and if it's a comet. The object will appear brighter as it approaches Earth, but models show it will likely be on the other side of the sun. But, don't be bummed, there's probably another interstellar object waiting to be discovered in time.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Learn About: NASA's Lucy Spacecraft Flyby With Asteroid Donaldjohanson
Learn more about the Lucy mission "fly past 52246 Donaldjohanson -NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center Dan Gallagher: Producer/Narrator Adriana Manrique Gutierrez: Animator Kel Elkins: Animator Johathan North: Animator Michael Lentz: Animator/Art Director Walt Feimer: Animation Lead Nancy Jones: Public Affairs Katherine Kretke: Public Affairs Universal Production Music: 'Nico's Journey' by Nicholas Smith [PRS]; 'Knowing Half the Future' and 'Temporal Timings' by Lee John Gretton [PRS]; 'Poly Propulsion' by Alfie Solo [PRS]
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Large Unidentified Object Detected Entering Our Solar System
In 2017, 'Oumuamua stunned scientists as the interstellar object entered and then exited the solar system, something previously unprecedented in the world of astronomy. In 2019, the comet Borisov was deemed the second interstellar object to enter our solar system. However, in 2022, another object was found to have previously come into our solar system and struck earth, without notice, in 2014. These three are the only known interstellar objects to have entered our solar system in recorded human history. But now a fourth and much larger object has been spotted entering the solar system, and the scientific community is rushing to study what, exactly, this thing is. While these findings are subject to change as more data becomes available, the object, dubbed A11pl3Z, is quite large. According to a Medium article by Harvard astronomer Avi Loeb, A11pl3X's H-magnitude of 12, previously listed by NASA, suggests a diameter of about 20 kilometers. Recent adjustments to the H-magnitude, now listed at 13.6, indicate that it may be even larger. Another interpretation of the data, according to Loeb, could suggest that A11pl3Z is smaller than these estimates, but a plume of gas and dust are creating the illusion of a much larger object. This simulation of A11pl3Z's trajectory, created by amateur astronomer Tony Dunn, shows its likely path in relation to the sun and planets: According to Dunn's projected trajectory, the object is expected to pass quite far from Earth but inside Mars' orbit, measuring 2.4 times as far from Earth as Earth's distance from the Sun when it reaches its closest point on Dec. 17 of this year. Marshall Eubanks, physicist and co-founder of Space Initiatives, commented on the object's speed to the The Minor Planet Mailing List, writing 'next April (2026) it will have a velocity relative to Earth of ~ 90 km/s. That should set a record.' Eubanks added that the object may be visible from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter when it passes 'relatively close to Mars' in October. The Minor Planet Mailing List hosts public discourse as a service to the astronomical community, and is, according to its website, 'populated with many of the world's best amateur astronomers as well as many professional astronomers involved in all facets of asteroid and comet research.' Large Unidentified Object Detected Entering Our Solar System first appeared on Men's Journal on Jul 2, 2025
