THE’European Space Agency (ESA) issued the images of the First total eclipse of artificial sun produced in space. This was possible thanks to the joint use of Two space probes as part of the Proba-3 mission. Thanks to the precision positioning tools on board, the two probes, a distance of 150 metersthey are Align to the millimeter For artificially obscure the solar diskthus revealing the tenuous crown of our star. The detailed images of the crown demonstrate the potential of flight technologies in training, while providing priceless scientific data that will improve our understanding of the sun and its enigmatic atmosphere.
How artificial eclipse was obtained
The mission Likely-3 of the ESA is made up of Two space probesa coronographer and a occultator, That they orbit in formation Around the earth to one distance of only 150 meters from each other. Thanks to the precision positioning tools on board, the two probes are able to maintain their relative position with a Margin of error of a single millimeter. The almost perfect alignment that is generated from the flight in training allows the two probes of Align on an imaginary line ranging from the coronographer to the sun, passing through the concept. The latter is equipped with a 1.4 -meter diameter disc which, at a distance of 150 meters, occupies a portion of heaven equal to that of the sunscreen, blocking its light and thus creating one Total eclipse of artificial sun. In particular, the two probes are at such a distance that the shadow generated on the coronographer is approximately 8 cmshadow that falls on the instrument ASPIICS (Association of Spacecraft for Polarimetric and Imaging Investigation of the Corona of the Sun), the optical tool aboard the coronographer.
The concealment of the sunbishment thus reveals the tenuous crown of the sunwhose temperature reaches the millions of degrees. This area is normally studied in detail during total natural eclipses. The latter, however, only occur one or twice a year and last a few minutes at a maximum area of the earth’s surface. Thanks to their prodigious alignment, the two probes of the probable mission are able to generate one Total artificial eclipse every 19.6 hourskeeping it even for six consecutive hours, thus allowing us to study in detail this soft, but very important component of the sun.
What we can learn and why the probable mission is important
The Proba-3 mission of ESA is the result of a consortium of European bodies that also include theItalian space agencywhose contribution lies both in the development of SPS (Shadow positions), which guarantees the ultra-pre-priciso alignment of the two satellites, which in the development of ultra-strict spectraral band filters for the instrument ASPIICSin order to isolate and study the coronal emission of the eel and iron ions ionized by the very high temperature of the crown.
The use of two space probes that form a gigantic coronographer in the space allows you to capture the Inner part of the solar crownalmost to touch the surface of the star. The sun crown reaches Temperatures above the million Celsius degreesmuch warmer than the surface below. This temperature difference counter-intuitive has long been subject of discussion in the scientific community And it is still an open problem in solar science. The most accredited explanation is that they exist as gods Packages of very hot material called “heat bombs” that travel from the sun towards the crown. In the crown, the heat bombs explode and release their energy by warming up the soft gas of the crown up to temperatures of millions of degrees. The images of the crown of Probi-3 will help in the optimization of the computerized models that by simulating the solar crown will help scientists understand the reason for this difference in temperature. Studying the crown is not only scientifically relevant, but it is also fundamental for life on Earth, since extreme spatial meteorological events such as solar eruptions originate in the crown.
