ESA’s Proba‑3 Crafts First Artificial Solar Eclipse in Space

Jun 18, 2025 Khushi Kumari

ESA’s Proba‑3 mission achieved the first-ever artificial total solar eclipse in orbit, capturing unprecedented corona images

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Two satellites—the Occulter and the Coronagraph—flew just 150 m apart, aligning with millimetre precision

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The Occulter’s 1.4 m disc eclipsed the Sun, casting an 8 cm shadow onto the Coronagraph’s ASPIICS instrument

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The Coronagraph captured detailed images of the Sun’s outer atmosphere—the corona—over hours, unlike fleeting natural eclipses

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Scientists aim to understand why the corona exceeds a million °C—hundreds of times hotter than the Sun’s surface

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Using autonomous GPS, laser metrology, star trackers, and fine control systems, Proba‑3 flies in near-perfect formation

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Each artificial eclipse can last up to 6 hours—far surpassing the few minutes of natural eclipses

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