Two spacecraft, about 1.5 metres in size, synchronised so neatly in outer space that they managed to cover the Sun and create an artificial total solar eclipse.
The European Space Agency has succeeded in creating an artificial total solar eclipse in space. It has now released photos of the event showing the mind-boggling phenomenon created using two spacecraft that were launched last year. They are on display at the Paris Air Show where the spacecraft can be seen reacing a particular position with the Sun in the background.
ESA had launched the two spacecraft last year as part of the £208 million Proba-3 mission to learn about the Sun’s corona and solar storms. The mission took its first photos of the Sun’s outer atmosphere – the solar corona. The flew as one spacecraft in stunning synchronisation to achieve the results.
The ESA shared, “This March, the Coronagraph and the Occulter (the two spacecraft) flew 150 metres apart in perfect formation for several hours without any control from the ground.”
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The spacecraft are small cube structures and less than five feet (1.5 metres) in size. They aligned with each other and maintained their relative position down to a single millimetre, almost becoming one. This was made possible by a set of innovative navigation and positioning technologies on board them.
After precisely positioning themselves, they used their formation flying time to create artificial total solar eclipses in orbit. They aligned perfectly with the Sun, so that the 1.4 m large disc on the Occulter spacecraft covered the bright disc of the Sun. This created an eight-centimetre shadow for the Coronagraph spacecraft, cast onto its optical instrument, ASPIICS, or Association of Spacecraft for Polarimetric and Imaging Investigation of the Corona.
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The shadow covered the 5 cm aperture of ASPIICS, leading it to capture the solar corona without any hindrance from the Sun’s bright light. One of the photos shows green-hued waves shooting out from behind the satellites.
Dietmar Pilz, ESA Director of Technology, Engineering and Quality, comments: “Many of the technologies which allowed Proba-3 to perform precise formation flying have been developed through ESA’s General Support Technology Programme, 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.”
The breakthrough event will help scientists learn about coronal mass ejections (CMEs) that send waves of particles shooting into the solar system. They are responsible for disrupting radio and communication signals on Earth and also for the beautiful auroras. The Sun is currently in a highly active state and has recently released plumes of plasma into space.
Notably, the temperature recorded on the Sun’s corona is more than a million degrees Celsius. This is much hotter than its surface. Scientists have been trying to learn the reason behind it, and Proba-3 aims to dive deep into this by studying the corona very close to the Sun’s surface.
