Latest news with #ESA
Yahoo
5 hours ago
- Science
- Yahoo
Scientists Line Up Satellites to Create "Artificial Total Solar Eclipse"
Two satellites just carefully lined up to form a perfect "artificial total solar eclipse" in orbit. Earlier this year, the two probes, which are part of the European Space Agency's Proba-3 mission, positioned themselves in a perfect line 492 feet apart to have one of them perfectly obfuscate the Sun's rays. Impressively, they were able to maintain their position with an accuracy down to the millimeter. The outermost satellite then snapped fascinating pictures of the Sun's corona, the outermost part of our star's atmosphere, something that's generally speaking only possible during a natural solar eclipse. The first "Occulter" satellite's 4.6-foot disc cast a three-inch shadow onto the Association of Spacecraft for Polarimetric and Imaging Investigation of the Corona of the Sun (ASPIICS) instrument mounted to the second "Coronagraph" satellite, allowing it to get an uninterrupted view of the Sun's corona. The spectacular satellite dance could give researchers new ways to study solar wind, or the continuous flow of particles from the Sun. It could also give them new views of coronal mass ejections, powerful explosions of plasma and magnetic fields that have been linked to radio blackouts and GPS outages here on Earth. "It is exciting to see these stunning images validate our technologies in what is now the world's first precision formation flying mission," said ESA director of technology Dietmar Pilz in a statement. Researchers behind the stunt are excited to gather even more images and data of the Sun's corona. "I was absolutely thrilled to see the images, especially since we got them on the first try," ASPIICS principal investigator Andrei Zhukov added. "Now we are working on extending the observation time to six hours in every orbit." "Each full image — covering the area from the occulted Sun all the way to the edge of the field of view – is actually constructed from three images," he explained. "Combining the three images gives us the full view of the corona." Best of all, Zhukov and his colleagues found that the satellites' "'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," he added, "while total solar eclipses only occur naturally around once, very rarely twice a year." Scientists are already excited about the glut of new observations that could greatly enhance existing research into the Sun's atmosphere, including efforts to use computer simulations to predict future patterns. "This huge flow of observations will help refine computer models further as we compare and adjust variables to match the real images," said ESA space weather modeling coordinator Jorge Amaya in the statement. More on solar eclipses: Here's What NASA's Rovers See During an Eclipse on Mars
Yahoo
10 hours ago
- Science
- Yahoo
Venturi Space Shows Off Its Pitch for a New Lunar Lander
Monaco-based Venturi Space has debuted a new design for a next-generation lunar rover that it's calling Mona Luna. It's a pitch that it hopes the European Space Agency (ESA) will pick up during its ministerial conference later this year. It includes a new deformable wheel design and a sleek, futuristic look, with instruments held near the center to protect against harsh moon temperature swings throughout the day/night cycle. The Venturi Space pitch is that the ESA already has a lunar launch vehicle in the Ariane 6, and a lunar lander in the Argonaut for future payload delivery to the Moon. But what it doesn't have, though, is a lunar rover, and Venturi wants to be the company to provide it, as reports. Mona Luna is a next-generation rover design that looks sleek and futuristic, eschewing the gangly, many-limbed rovers we're used to seeing exploring Mars in recent years. That's because the Mona Luna keeps most of its instruments internally to better protect them against the extreme elements and temperature swings that can be experienced on the moon's surface. In the above concept video, Venturi shows the rover opening its back panel to reveal a number of modular sensors and tools, which the articulating arm can attach and detach to and from at will. That allows a single arm to provide the full functionality of the rover, cutting back on overall costs and weight in the design. It also allows each instrument to have the same level of flexible control. Another technology Venturi is pioneering for this design is its deformable wheels. These wheels are capable of handling extreme temperature swings from -240 degrees C to 130 degrees C while retaining the same strength and support so that the rover can continue to operate even in the lunar south pole. This hyper-mobile wheel design should also let the rover traverse more demanding surface conditions, letting it travel where previous rovers would be unable to even attempt. Although the rover's weight is 1650 pounds, with payloads, it could reach as high as 4,400 pounds. The wheels are designed to handle that while still maintaining the ability to reach nine miles per hour or up to 12 miles per hour with lighter payloads. If Venturi is successful in convincing the ESA to provide some of its budget for a rover contract, it will be able to show proof of its concepts before a potential 2030+ mission. The wheel technologies are being used in the next generation of NASA's own lunar vehicle, the Flex Rover, currently under development at California-based Astrolab. That vehicle is expected to launch for a lunar south pole mission sometime in 2026 or 2027.
Indian Express
11 hours ago
- Science
- Indian Express
How scientists created an ‘artificial' total solar eclipse to unlock the Sun's secrets
The sun's corona (or outer atmosphere) has proved a difficult subject for solar scientists on Earth to study, appearing only in a total solar eclipse. This phenomenon, occurring once in around 18 months, was their only opportunity to observe parts of the corona. However, with Proba-3's recent mission, research can advance at a much quicker pace. The European Space Agency (ESA) on June 16, announced that the Proba-3 mission had created an 'artificial total solar eclipse' in orbit. This was achieved as the mission's two spacecraft – the Coronagraph and the Occulter – flew in formation 150 metres apart, and aligned so that the Occulter's disc covered the sun's disc, casting a shadow onto the Coronagraph's optical instrument. '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 in a statement. The mission was launched in December 2024. It involved sending both satellites into the solar orbit. In March this year, both spacecraft flew 150 metres apart, in formation up to to a millimetre's precision, without control from the Earth for several hours. When creating the artificial solar eclipse, the satellites aligned in formation based on the position of the Sun. Then, Occulter's 1.4-metre large disc would be used to block the sun's disc. This would cast a shadow of approximately 8 centimetre, across the Coronagraph's optical instruments, positioned behind the Occulter. Thanks to the precision, these instruments were able to provide the images of the corona. '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,' Zhukov explained. This mission could prove crucial for solar scientists, with previously unseen angles of the elusive corona becoming available for study. One benefit could be the study of solar wind, described by the ESA as 'the continuous flow of matter from the Sun into outer space.' Driven by the corona, these winds usually consist of charged particles, and constantly rain down upon the Earth as well. However, this can be interrupted by coronal mass ejections (CMEs), or solar storms. This subsequently affects space weather, which in turn can affect Earth's power grids, communication systems, and satellite operations. With the data from the Proba-3 mission and any subsequent missions focused on corona imaging, solar scientists can be better prepared for the potential threat of a severe solar storm – which NASA describes as 'a sudden explosion of particles, energy, magnetic fields, and material blasted into the solar system by the Sun'. Another question that Proba-3 would be able to solve is how the corona, which extends millions of miles across space, but still reaches temperatures above a million degrees Celsius, burns much hotter than the surface. To understand the reasoning, Proba-3 is attempting to study the corona at a minimal distance from the sun's surface. Due to the quality of the equipment, fewer stray rays would hit the detector, more details would be captured, and fainter features would be detected as compared to a traditional coronagraph. 'Current coronagraphs are no match for Proba-3, which will observe the Sun's corona down almost to the edge of the solar surface. So far, this was only possible during natural solar eclipses,' Jorge Amaya, Space Weather Modelling Coordinator at ESA, said in the ESA release. Alongside the key data provided by Proba-3, its precision flying in formation also paved the way for future missions, such as the ESA's Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA), scheduled to launch in 2035. This mission will contain three identical spacecraft, arranged in an equilateral triangle formation, trailing behind the Earth in its orbit around the Sun. The mission is scheduled to last two years, aiming to capture images of the corona for further study, and then re-enter the Earth's atmosphere five years post-launch, as per the ESA. (This article has been curated by Purv Ashar, who is an intern with The Indian Express)
Business Wire
12 hours ago
- Business
- Business Wire
Redwire Successfully Completes Integration of Hammerhead Spacecraft for Upcoming European Mission
JACKSONVILLE, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Redwire Corporation (NYSE: RDW), a leader in space infrastructure for the next generation space economy, announced today that is has completed the integration of a Hammerhead spacecraft platform for an upcoming European Space Agency (ESA) mission at its facility in Kruibeke, Belgium. The Hammerhead spacecraft will support ESA's Atmospheric Limb Tracker for Investigation of the Upcoming Stratosphere (ALTIUS) mission. Redwire is the prime contractor for ALTIUS. This milestone marks the completion of Hammerhead spacecraft platform integration at Redwire's state-of-the-art satellite processing facility in Belgium. Following platform integration, the satellite will undergo platform system testing and payload integration, marking the completion of the full satellite. Hammerhead is Redwire's highly versatile low Earth orbit spacecraft platform, offering exceptional performance and a track record of outstanding reliability with 50 years of in-orbit performance without spacecraft failure. The ALTIUS satellite also features Redwire's third-generation Advanced Data and Power Management System (ADPMS-3) avionics. 'Redwire's Belgium facility has emerged as a world-class satellite processing facility with a proven track record of building satellites for groundbreaking multinational missions, including ESA's Proba-3 mission,' said Redwire President of Civil and International Space, Mike Gold. 'We are incredibly proud of the team's accomplishment in achieving this milestone, and we look forward to continuing to build on this track record of efficiency and on-time deliveries for ESA in support of a bold new era of European space exploration and development.' Redwire's facility in Belgium has more than 40 years of spaceflight heritage developing spacecraft platforms and success delivering innovative technology for game-changing ESA programs. Most notably, every spacecraft used for ESA's Proba missions (Proba-1, Proba-2, Proba-V, and Proba-3) have been developed and integrated at Redwire's Belgium facility. Leveraging its legacy of innovation and excellence, Redwire continues to manufacture spacecraft for important ESA programs, including Skimsat, a technology demonstrator for a small satellite platform designed to operate in very low Earth orbit. Disclaimer: The views expressed herein can in no way be taken to reflect the official opinion of the European Space Agency. About Redwire Redwire Corporation (NYSE:RDW) is an integrated aerospace and defense company focused on advanced technologies. We are building the future of aerospace infrastructure, autonomous systems and multi-domain operations leveraging digital engineering and AI automation. Redwire's approximately 1,300 employees located throughout the United States and Europe are committed to delivering innovative space and airborne platforms transforming the future of multi-domain operations. For more information, please visit
Yomiuri Shimbun
13 hours ago
- Science
- Yomiuri Shimbun
Solar Orbiter Obtains 1st Images of the Sun's Poles
ESA & NASA / Solar Orbiter / PHI Team, J. Hirzberger (MPS) / Handout via Reuters A radiance map of the sun's south pole as recorded by the Solar Orbiter spacecraft is seen in this image released by the European Space Agency on June 11. The robotic Solar Orbiter spacecraft has obtained the first images ever taken of our sun's two poles as scientists seek a deeper understanding of Earth's host star, including its magnetic field, its 11-year cycle of activity and the solar wind. The European Space Agency on June 11 released images taken in March using three of Solar Orbiter's onboard instruments. They show the sun's south pole from a distance of roughly 65 million kilometers, obtained at a period of maximum solar activity. Images of the north pole are still being transmitted by the spacecraft back to Earth. Solar Orbiter, developed by ESA in collaboration with the U.S. space agency NASA, was launched in 2020 from Florida. Until now, all the views of the sun have come from the same vantage point — looking face-on toward its equator from the plane on which Earth and the solar system's other planets orbit, called the ecliptic plane. Solar Orbiter used a slingshot flyby around Venus in February to get out of this plane to view the sun from up to 17 degrees below the solar equator. Future slingshot flybys will provide an even better view, at beyond 30 degrees. 'The best is still to come. What we have seen is just a first quick peek,' said solar physicist Sami Solanki of the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research in Germany, who heads the scientific team for the spacecraft's Polarimetric and Helioseismic Imager instrument. 'The spacecraft observed both poles, first the south pole, then the north pole,' Solanki said. Solar Orbiter is gathering data on phenomena including the sun's magnetic field, its activity cycle and the solar wind, a relentless high-speed flow of charged particles emanating from the sun's outermost atmospheric layer that fills interplanetary space. 'We are not sure what we will find, and it is likely we will see things that we didn't know about before,' said solar physicist Hamish Reid of University College London's Mullard Space Science Laboratory, coprincipal investigator of Solar Orbiter's Extreme Ultraviolet Imager instrument. The sun is a ball of hot electrically charged gas that, as it moves, generates a powerful magnetic field, which flips from south to north and back again every 11 years in what is called the solar cycle. The magnetic field drives the formation of sunspots, cooler regions on the solar surface that appear as dark blotches. At the cycle's beginning, the sun has fewer sunspots. Their number increases as the cycle progresses, before starting all over again. 'What we have been missing to really understand this [solar cycle] is what is actually happening at the top and bottom of the sun,' Reid said. The sun's diameter is about 1.4 million kilometers, more than 100 times wider than Earth. ESA & NASA / Solar Orbiter / PHI, EUI & SPICE Teams / Handout via Reuters Eight views of the sun's south pole obtained on March 16–17, 2025, by the Solar Orbiter spacecraft's Polarimetric and Helioseismic Imager (PHI), Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (EUI) and Spectral Imaging of the Coronal Environment (SPICE) instruments are seen in this image released by the European Space Agency on June 11. 'Whilst the Earth has a clear north and south pole, the Solar Orbiter measurements show both north and south polarity magnetic fields are currently present at the south pole of the sun. This happens during the maximum in activity of the solar cycle, when the sun's magnetic field is about to flip. In the coming years, the sun will reach solar minimum, and we expect to see a more orderly magnetic field around the poles of the sun,' Reid said. 'We see in the images and movies of the polar regions that the sun's magnetic field is chaotic at the poles at the [current] phase of the solar cycle — high solar activity, cycle maximum,' Solanki said. The sun is located about 149 million kilometers from our planet. 'The data that Solar Orbiter obtains during the coming years will help modelers in predicting the solar cycle. This is important for us on Earth because the sun's activity causes solar flares and coronal mass ejections which can result in radio communication blackouts, destabilize our power grids, but also drive the sensational auroras,' Reid said. 'Solar Orbiter's new vantage point out of the ecliptic will also allow us to get a better picture of how the solar wind expands to form the heliosphere, a vast bubble around the sun and its planets,' Reid added. A previous spacecraft, Ulysses, flew over the solar poles in the 1990s. 'Ulysses, however, was blind in the sense that it did not carry any optical instruments — telescopes or cameras — and hence could only sense the solar wind passing the spacecraft directly, but could not image the sun,' Solanki said.
