On December 5, the European Space Agency launched two spacecraft as part of the Proba-3 mission to create an artificial solar eclipse. The goal is to study the sun’s corona, a poorly understood area of the sun’s outer atmosphere, and demonstrate a new technology called precise formation flying.

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• Proba-3 mission launched on December 5 by ESA.
• Two spacecraft launched to create an artificial solar eclipse.
• Mission aims to study the sun’s corona, its outer atmosphere.
• The corona is much hotter than the sun’s surface (1-3 million °C vs 5,500 °C).
• Understanding the corona could reveal reasons for solar phenomena, like solar flares.
• Proba-3 uses precise formation flying to align the spacecraft to mimic the moon’s eclipse.
• One spacecraft, the Coronagraph, guides the second spacecraft, the Occulter.
• The Occulter’s disk, 140 cm in diameter, will cast a shadow on the Coronagraph spacecraft.
• The spacecraft are launched from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in India.
• The mission will help in better understanding of solar physics and space weather.