Latest news with #corona
Yahoo
18 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
Forbes
a day ago
- Science
- Forbes
NASA Spacecraft ‘Touches Sun' For Final Time In Defining Moment For Humankind
The heavily armored Parker Solar Probe has traveled to within just 3.86 million miles (6.1 million kilometers) of the sun's surface — what NASA calls 'hyper close.' It's the third and final time it has performed the feat, following similar achievements on Dec. 24, 2024, and March 22, 2025. Parker launched on Aug. 12, 2018, and has since conducted 23 perihelions — close passes — of the sun, getting to within 3.86 million miles (6.1 million kilometers) twice before today's repeat performnce. For scale, that's four yards from the end zone if the distance between Earth and the sun was the length of an American football field, according to mission scientists. During this final perihelion of the mission, the probe will be traveling at around 430,000 miles per hour (690,000 kilometers per hour). According to NASA, that's fast enough to get from Philadelphia to Washington, D.C., in a single second. Perihelion 24 also sees it forced to withstand temperatures of 1,600 to 1,700 degrees Fahrenheit (870 to 930 degrees Celsius). Its only armor against both temperature and extreme ultraviolet radiation is a carbon composite shield. Parker is in a highly elliptical orbit, which takes 88 days but allows it to occasionally swoop particularly close to the sun. One of the main objectives of the mission is to understand why the sun's corona, its outer atmosphere, is a million times hotter than the photosphere, its surface. The corona is where the solar wind originates from, so solar physicists must understand it better if they are to forecast space weather more accurately. That's important because the state of the solar wind — a stream of charged particles interacting with the Earth's atmosphere — can damage satellites and harm astronauts, as well as cause Northern Lights. The latter half of Parker's mission has coincided with the peak of Solar Cycle 25, the current 11-year-long cycle of the sun, during which our star experiences a waxing and waning of magnetic activity. A study published on June 3 used data from Parker while flying close to the sun, reveal a new source for energetic particles in the solar corona. The mechanism, called magnetic reconnection, heats the solar atmosphere, accelerating solar wind particles. Magnetic reconnection — when magnetic field lines converge, break apart and reconnect in an explosive physical process — is responsible for powerful solar events, such as solar flares and coronal mass ejections. 'We've seen how magnetic reconnection behaves near Earth, but Parker has now shown how potent it is near the sun, where magnetic fields are significantly stronger,' said Dr. Mihir Desai, lead author and a scientist at the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, Texas. Parker isn't going anywhere. Locked in the orbit of the sun, it will continue to loop around our star. However, it was gravity assists at Venus that gave the spacecraft enough momentum to get so close to the sun. No, it's within the orbit of Venus, that opportunity is lost, so it won't be able to reach any closer to the sun than it already has done. According to Live Science, the spacecraft's thrusters will eventually run out of fuel, and it will burn up, though its heat shield may remain in orbit for thousands of years.
BBC News
3 days ago
- Science
- BBC News
Space mission creates first ever artificial solar eclipse
The European Space Agency (ESA) has revealed the first images of an artificial total eclipse created by a pair of satellites in space as part of its Proba-3 mission. In March, the two spacecraft, called the Coronagraph and the Occulter, flew 150 metres apart while perfectly aligned for several hours without being controlled from the extremely precise positions - down to a single millimetre - enabled the satellites to create a total solar eclipse in orbit. The satellites aligned with the Sun in a way that allowed the Occulter spacecraft to block the giant star's bright disc, casting a shadow across the Coronagraph's optical shadow allows the Coronagraph's instrument, which is called ASPIICS, to successfully capture images of the outermost part of the Sun's atmosphere, known as the increasingly need to study the corona, but find it hard to do so without an eclipse because the sun's surface is one million times amazing pictures are uninterrupted by the Sun's bright light."It is exciting to see these stunning images validate our technologies in what is now the world's first precision formation flying mission," said Dietmar Pilz, who is the ESA's director of technology, engineering and quality. What is the Proba-3 mission all about? The Sun's corona can reach temperatures of around 1,000,000 degrees Celsius or more. It's much hotter than the sun's surface below and this temperature difference is something that continues to both intrigue and puzzle researchers. The Proba-3 mission aims to tackle this longstanding mystery by studying the corona in more depth. The Coronagraph spacecraft's instrument ASPIICS is able to see more detail, finding fainter features than other missions. "Seeing the first data from ASPIICS is incredibly exciting," said Joe Zender who is a scientist on the Proba-3 project."ASPIICS will contribute to unravelling long-lasting questions about our home star."Rather than relying on humans, the spacecraft lined themselves up with the sun in a manner "akin to driverless cars", the space agency the spacecraft blasted off in December last year, they had enough fuel to keep going for around two five years, it is expected they will burn up in the Earth's atmosphere.
Gizmodo
3 days ago
- Science
- Gizmodo
Why This Recent Total Solar Eclipse Was the First of Its Kind
The Sun's outer atmosphere—the corona—only reveals itself during total solar eclipses, which happen about every 18 months on Earth, and are only visible along a narrow path. These events offer scientists a rare opportunity to observe the Sun's violent surface—but now, they won't have to wait on the cosmos to do so. On Monday, June 16, the European Space Agency (ESA) announced that its Proba-3 mission created the world's first artificial total solar eclipse. The mission's two satellites, the Occulter and the Coronagraph, autonomously aligned in space to blot out the Sun's surface and capture images of the corona. Proba-3's success won't just expand access to solar data—it also demonstrates an entirely new level of satellite formation flying. 'I was absolutely thrilled to see the images, especially since we got them on the first try,' said Andrei Zhukov, principal investigator for the Association of Spacecraft for Polarimetry and Imaging Investigation of the Corona of the Sun (ASPIICS) at the Royal Observatory of Belgium, according to the ESA announcement. The agency launched the Proba-3 mission on December 5, 2024, sending the Occulter and Coronagraph to solar orbit. In May, the two satellites achieved something no spacecraft had done before: Occulter and Coronagraph autonomously aligned in space with millimeter (0.04-inch) precision and maintained their relative position for hours without any intervention from ground control. To create the artificial eclipse, the two satellites had to align with roughly 500 feet (150 meters) between them, allowing Occulter's 4.6-foot (1.4-meter) disc to cast a 3-inch (8-centimeter) shadow on Coronagraph's optical instrument. This blotted out the surface of the Sun from Coronagraph's perspective, allowing it to photograph the wispy corona. 'Our 'artificial eclipse' images are comparable with those taken during a natural eclipse,' Zhukov said. '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.' This first round of coronal images offers a glimpse into the valuable data this eclipse-making mission will produce, according to ESA. Studying the corona is scientifically valuable for a number of reasons. For one, the corona drives solar wind—the continuous flow of charged particles from the Sun into outer space—and explosive jets of highly magnetized plasma called coronal mass ejections. Observing these forces is crucial to understanding solar weather, which can affect Earth's satellites, communication systems, and power grids. Insights from Proba-3 and subsequent corona-imaging missions could help scientists better prepare for the threat of a severe solar storm. In May, participants from several U.S. agencies ran the first-ever solar storm emergency drill, revealing major shortcomings in scientists' ability to forecast space weather and protect critical infrastructure. The corona may also hold the answer to a scientific mystery. This outer layer of the Sun's atmosphere extends millions of miles out into space, but somehow reaches temperatures about 200 times hotter than the surface of the Sun. Experts have described this puzzling phenomenon, dubbed the coronal heating problem, as 'one of the most vexing questions in modern solar physics.' The Proba-3 mission aims to solve this mystery by using Coronagraph's optical instrument to study the corona very close to the Sun's surface, according to ESA. This state-of-the-art instrument reduces the amount of stray light that reaches the detector, allowing it to capture more detail and detect fainter features than traditional coronagraphs have in the past. 'Current coronagraphs are no match for Proba-3, which will observe the Sun's corona down almost to the edge of the solar surface,' said Jorge Amaya, space weather modeling coordinator at ESA, in the agency's announcement. 'So far, this was only possible during natural solar eclipses.' In addition to conducting valuable solar science, Proba-3 paves the way for autonomous precision formation flying that will be crucial for future multi-spacecraft missions such as ESA's Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA). Proba-3 will observe the Sun's corona for about two years, capturing images once only possible during rare celestial alignments. The flood of new observations should drastically improve scientists' understanding of our home star—the force that makes life here on Earth possible.
Sky News
3 days ago
- Science
- Sky News
Artificial solar eclipse created by 'driverless' spacecraft in world first
Two "driverless" spacecraft have flown in perfect formation to create a small artificial solar eclipse and "achieve what no other mission has before", the European Space Agency (ESA) has said. The synchronised flight orbiting Earth allowed one of the satellites to cast an 8cm-wide shadow onto its sister craft, flying 150 metres away, by blocking its view from space of the sun's surface. The technique helped the space agency to capture detailed images of the sun's fiery outer atmosphere, called the corona. Scientists increasingly need to study the corona, but find it hard to do so without an eclipse because the sun's surface is one million times brighter. Solar wind, the flow of matter from the sun to outer space, and coronal mass ejections, the eruptions of plasma from the sun, can both interfere with modern technology like satellites – as well as cause displays of the Northern and Southern Lights. It is hoped that studying the corona more closely will help scientists better understand solar weather, as well as answer questions about the sun itself. The images from the Proba-3 mission were taken in March but have only been released by the space agency this week. "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," said Andrei Zhukov from the Royal Observatory of Belgium. "On top of that, natural total eclipses only last a few minutes, while Proba-3 can hold its artificial eclipse for up to six hours." The two satellites are able to align with the sun so that the 1.4-metre disc carried by one of the spacecraft, the Occulter, covers the bright disc of the sun and casts a shadow. The other spacecraft, the Coronagraph, then takes a series of photographs with different exposure times. The satellites flew within 150 metres of each other, with a precision "equal to the thickness of the average fingernail", according to the ESA. Rather than relying on human drivers, who would have an "uncomfortable" delay of a fifth of a second while steering, the spacecraft autonomously lined themselves up with the sun in a manner "akin to driverless cars", the space agency said. When the spacecraft blasted off in December last year, they had enough fuel to keep going for around two years. After five years, it is expected they will burn up in the Earth's atmosphere.
