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Two European Satellites Perfectly Creates Artificial Solar Eclipses, Transforming Solar Research

Space

Business Honor
18 June, 2025

Two European satellites accurately fly to create artificial solar eclipses, offering a broader view of the sun’s corona for scientific study.

Two European satellites are flying perfectly positioned to replicate the way the moon covers the sun during natural solar eclipses, creating artificial solar eclipses for the first time. The Proba-3 mission sent into orbit by the European Space Agency last year consists of two small satellites that are just 492 feet (150 meters) away. One of these satellites covers the sun, and the other views the corona, the sun's bright outer atmosphere.

The satellites use GPS, lasers, and other methods to keep their positions within a millimeter, with incredible accuracy, to perform this specific dance. 10 excellent fake eclipses, all lasting up to five hours, had been created by Proba-3. In contrast with natural eclipses, that commonly last just a few minutes, researchers aim to produce a six-hour total eclipse in the future.

The natural, clear corona photos already look thrilling, according to lead scientist Andrei Zhukov. Proba-3 aims to create nearly 200 eclipses over a period of two years, offering the researchers thousands of hours to research the sun's mysterious corona. Making it easier to understand how solar storms can affect Earth's connectivity and electrical systems.

Proba-3 provides an improved view of the corona closer to the sun's surface as it uses two separate satellites, unlike earlier missions. Damien Galano, the ESA mission manager, described the project's accurate flying as a space technological achievement. This new technique may lead the way for even more advanced space observatories and artificial eclipses, changing our knowledge of the sun and other stars as well as protecting our planet from their unexpected power.