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.
BulletsIn
- 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.




What do you think?
It is nice to know your opinion. Leave a comment.