When we see a solar eclipse, we often think of the moon passing between the Earth and the sun, temporarily blocking the sun’s light from reaching the Earth. This arrangement is known as syzygy (sounds like shizuzy).
But last week, the European Space Agency (ESA) created the first-ever artificial solar eclipse, launching two spacecraft aimed at mimicking the moon’s behavior. Any ideas? It will demonstrate the readiness of a technology called precision formation flight (PFF) to study the sun’s atmosphere, known as the corona. The mission is called Proba-3 (Project for On-Board Autonomy).
“At the moment, this (corona) is a region of the sun that is not well studied and scientists these days don’t really understand some of the phenomena that are happening there,” Proba- 3 systems engineer Estelle Bastida in a recent paper. ESA video. One of the key questions about the corona that scientists want to understand is why it is so much hotter than the sun itself.
The sun’s surface is approximately 5,500 degrees Celsius (9,932 degrees Fahrenheit), but the sun’s thin outer atmosphere, the corona, can reach temperatures of 1 million to 3 million degrees Celsius (1.8 million to 5.4 million degrees Fahrenheit). there is.
The sun’s circumference is about 4,373,000 kilometers (2,717,000 miles), but solar flares from the corona can reach Earth about 150 million kilometers (93 million miles) away.
How does Proba-3 create a solar eclipse?
Prova-3 was launched on December 5 from India’s Satish Dhawan Space Center, one of the world’s busiest space launch facilities.
The two spacecraft will be carried into space approximately 60,000 kilometers (37,280 miles) above Earth using a PSLV-C59 rocket built by the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO). The Coronagraph Spacecraft (CSC) is responsible for guiding a second spacecraft, the Occulter (OSC), with a 140 cm (55 inch) diameter disk that casts a controlled shadow onto the Coronagraph Spacecraft. Masu.
According to ESA, the two spacecraft will use Precision Formation Flight (PFF) technology to position themselves exactly 150 meters (492 feet) apart, allowing “one spacecraft to follow the other’s bright lights.” It is said to be lined up with the sun so as to block the solar disk.
Successful solar eclipse operations require millimeter-level precision, and solar eclipses can be generated on demand for up to six hours to allow researchers to study the solar corona.
What do researchers hope to accomplish during this mission?
One of the goals is to demonstrate PFF technology that uses GPS and intersatellite radio links for initial positioning while maintaining accurate distances between both the coronagraph and occulter spacecraft.
Initially, the two satellite spacecraft remain connected. However, once separated, they can maintain formation and then remain 25 to 250 meters (82 to 820 feet) apart.
The second goal is to use on-board instruments to observe the corona to understand why it is hotter than the Sun. One of the instruments on board is a coronagraph. This is a telescoping device that helps block out light from stars and other very bright objects so that other things can be seen. The Proba-3 coronagraph has the long-winded name “Spacecraft Society for Polarimetric and Imaging Surveys of the Solar Corona (ASPICCS).”
This technology simulates the viewing conditions of a total solar eclipse with remarkable accuracy, while eliminating interference typically caused by Earth’s atmosphere.
Why is this such a big deal?
The corona is usually invisible because its brightness is so low that it appears a million times brighter than the sun’s bright surface. It is only visible to the naked eye during a solar eclipse when the moon blocks the sun’s strong light.
“Studying the solar corona will allow us to more accurately predict space weather and extreme magnetic storms that can cause major disruptions to satellites and systems on Earth,” ESA said in a recent video about the mission. said.
Total solar eclipses are extremely rare. They are typically only seen once every 375 years anywhere on Earth and last only a few minutes.
If Proba-3 has an orbit of 19 hours and 36 minutes, If the mission is successful, scientists won’t have to wait. They will be able to study the corona for six hours during each orbital cycle of the mission.
