A pair of satellites of mostly Belgian make have captured a double eclipse in space…in a way. Allow us to explain.
The Proba-3 satellite system is comprised of a satellite with a camera and a second satellite that is perfectly round. The two are aligned with minute precision, fly 150 metres from each other and are controlled in the European Space Agency (ESA) centre in Redu, in the Belgian Ardennes. The system is unique in its precision.
Maybe your penny dropped when you read that one of the satellites is perfectly round. As these Belgian machines fly through space at 30,000 kilometres per hour, the spherical satellite can create an artificial eclipse, allowing scientists to study the sun’s corona – the outer layer of the sun’s atmosphere – whenever they want, without having to wait for the phenomenon to naturally occur as we saw from Earth.
The eclipse that we saw from our planet on 12 August allowed the satellite to capture a stunning double solar eclipse, allowing researchers to run images and measurements of their artificial eclipses against the naturally occurring one. This enabled them to verify the data they had gathered.
Did you know that a Belgian research team also took to the skies during the eclipse to perform all kinds of experiments during the eclipse?
