Latest news with #MESOM
Metro
5 days ago
- Science
- Metro
The Simpsons predict the future after scientists plan artificial solar eclipse
'Have you ever seen the Sun set at 3pm?' This is what Mr Burns, the billionaire tyrant, asked the residents of Springfield in a 1996 episode of The Simpsons. And soon, a group of scientists can say they have. A UK-led space mission will see astronomers blot out the Sun by using a satellite, once again proving that The Simpsons can predict the future. The Moon-Enabled Sun Occultation Mission (MESOM), unveiled yesterday at the Royal Astronomical Society's National Astronomy Meeting, hopes that human-made solar eclipses will help us understand the Sun. A small satellite will be blasted into a special orbit that allows it to align with the Moon's shadow roughly once every lunar month, or 29.6 days. Solar eclipses don't sound like much – they happen when the Moon comes between us and the Sun. But the sight of the silhouette of the Moon eating into the yellow orb of the Sun is a celestial marvel. The Moon is about 400 times smaller than the Sun, but is 400 times closer to us – when the two align, they're about the same size in the sky. Sometimes only a small chunk of the Sun is obscured, leading to a partial solar eclipse. Earth can also elbow its way between the Sun and the Moon, which is called a lunar eclipse. Total solar eclipses aren't a common sight, occurring once every 18 months and can be as short as 10 seconds, according to the Royal Museums Greenwich. But MESOM aims to create 80 of them, each nearly 50 minutes long, across two years. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video The artificial solar eclipse will recreate totality – the moment the Moon completely covers the Sun. During this, wispy white strings of light from the Sun's atmosphere, or corona, are visible. It's these wisps that are of interest to scientists, with eclipses being one of the few times the innermost corona is visible. But like children being told not to look at the Sun with the naked eye, scientists struggle to get a good look at the corona because of how bright the Sun is, Royal Observatory Greenwich astronomer Jake Foster told Metro. 'We happen to be extremely lucky here on Earth that total solar eclipses occur, because in the brief few moments that the Moon completely blocks the Sun's surface from view, we can see and study its atmosphere, known as the corona,' he said. To get around this, MESOM will observe the technologically blocked-out Sun from space. The orbital spacecraft will get up, close and personal with our star – it'll be 56,000km close to the Sun. The satellite has a high-resolution coronal imager, a very powerful camera, and a corona mass spectrometer that can track the plasma that the Sun spits out. They'll also use a spectropolarimeter. While it sounds like something that can detect ghosts, the instrument can pick up sunspots, cool, dark spots of the Sun twisted by its magnetic field. By doing so, the international researchers will be able to forecast space weather better, such as solar storms, the Sun's energy smashing into the Earth, which can cause blackouts and power grid failures. More Trending Foster said: 'This could rapidly accelerate our chances to answer the big unsolved mysteries of the Sun, such as why its atmosphere (the corona) is so much hotter than its surface. 'Also, the chance to study and better understand space weather caused by the Sun is invaluable, since its effects on the Earth's electrical systems can be devastating if powerful enough.' The MESOM team submitted their proposal to the European Space Agency's F-class mission call in May. F-class missions are quick and easy projects – at least, in the world of multi-million pound world of space tech. If given the green light, they expect to start work on MESOM as early as 2026. Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@ For more stories like this, check our news page. MORE: Earth is spinning so fast that today will be shorter – but is time going faster? MORE: Here's how to see the Delta Aquariid meteor shower just around the corner MORE: Uranus enters Gemini for the first time since 1949 — this is the epiphany it brings your star sign
Forbes
7 days ago
- Science
- Forbes
Total Solar Eclipses May Soon Last 48 Minutes, Scientists Say
A total solar eclipse is seen on Monday, August 21, 2017 above Madras, Oregon. A total solar eclipse ... More swept across a narrow portion of the contiguous United States from Lincoln Beach, Oregon to Charleston, South Carolina. A partial solar eclipse was visible across the entire North American continent along with parts of South America, Africa, and Europe. Photo Credit: (NASA/Aubrey Gemignani) NASA/Aubrey Gemignani EXC: Artificial solar eclipses in space could help scientists study the sun's corona, improving space weather predictions with the UK-led MESOM mission. KEYS: MESOM, corona, space weather, solar storm, Mullard Space Lab, Surrey Space Centre, solar flares, coronal mass ejection COPY: A U.K.-led space mission will try to experience around 80 total solar eclipses in space, potentially offering scientists an unprecedented glimpse into the sun's mysterious outer atmosphere. The Moon-Enabled Sun Occultation Mission (MESOM), unveiled today at the Royal Astronomical Society's National Astronomy Meeting 2025 in Durham, will synchronize its orbit to coincide with solar eclipses in space. If approved by ESA, MESOM would cost no more than $240 million and could be in orbit by 2026-28. MESOM comes in the wake of the first images from Proba-3, a European Space Agency mission to do something very similar — though that will only last for two years. Solar Corona Clearer, longer views of the sun's elusive inner corona — the source of powerful solar flares and storms — are essential if solar physicists are to better understand space weather. Only during a total solar eclipse can the corona be glimpsed from Earth's surface, and even then, only for a few minutes from any one location. Unlike Earth-based total solar eclipses, MESOM aims to align a mini-satellite with the moon's central umbral shadow once every lunar month — 29.6 days. MESOM's unique orbit will repeatedly pass through the apex of the moon's umbral cone, the darkest portion of its shadow, generating near-monthly eclipses. 48-Minute totality These in-space eclipses could last up to 48 minutes, far longer than anything experienced from the ground on Earth. 'MESOM capitalizes on the chaotic dynamics of the Sun-Earth-Moon system to reproduce total solar eclipse conditions in space while using the moon as a natural occulter,' said co-investigator Dr Nicola Baresi, from the Surrey Space Centre. An occulter is something that blocks light from a celestial object. MESOM will have the following instruments on board: Telescope (US Naval Research Lab): imaging the corona. Spectrometer (Aberystwyth & UCL): studying coronal plasma. Spectropolarimeter (Spain): analyzing magnetic fields, sunspots and solar and flares. Getting Closer To The Corona MESOM is a slight upgrade on ESA's current Proba-3 mission. That mission sees two spacecraft align so one can occult the sun and project a shadow onto the other — no moon required. As well as moving into the always-there shadow of the moon, MESOM aims to peer in from just 1.02 solar radii — 35,000 miles (56,000 kilometers) closer than Proba-3. The Proba-3 satellites follow a highly elliptical 19.6-hour orbit ranging from 373 miles (600 km) at perigee to 37,000 miles (60,000 km) at apogee, flying in precision formation only near apogee. At apogee, they're as far away from Earth's gravitational force and atmospheric drag, enabling them to fly in formation autonomously, achieving eclipse-like conditions for six hours. The 'Concorde Eclipse' Although MESOM's 48-minute totality would be impressive, it's less than experienced by Concorde on June 30, 1973, when an experimental Concorde aircraft extended totality from 7 minutes and 4 seconds on the ground to 74 minutes in the air, by flying almost as fast as the moon's shadow. It took off from Las Palmas, Gran Canaria, in the Spanish Canary Islands, and flew at 1,350 mph (2,200 km/h) as the moon's shadow raced across it at 1,500 mph (2,400 km/h). Concorde was able to extend totality from 7 minutes to 4 seconds on the ground. The Longest Total Solar Eclipse From Earth Mathematically, the longest total solar eclipse could last 7 minutes 31 seconds, according to Jean Meeus . The longest total solar eclipse known to have occurred was 7 minutes, 28 seconds on June 15, 743 BC, in the Indian Ocean. However, it's been calculated that the longest so far — 7 minutes, 29 seconds — will occur in the Atlantic Ocean on July 16, 2186. The longest total solar eclipse left this century, with a totality duration of 6 minutes and 23 seconds, will occur on Aug. 2, 2027, close to Luxor, Egypt. Ancient Egypt's capital of Thebes, Luxor, is home to the Valley of the Kings and Queens, Karnak, and several other temples. Wishing you clear skies and wide eyes. The same total solar eclipse with the fields of view of the MESOM instruments superimposed on top of ... More it (i.e. HiBri,LoBri, CHILS and Mag-CHILS). Miloslav Druckmuller, Shadia Habbal, Pavel Starha. Attribution (CC BY 4.0)
