The European Space Agency’s Proba-3 mission is generating artificial total solar eclipses lasting up to five hours in orbit, bypassing the rarity of natural events that occur on Earth roughly every 16 months for only a few minutes. Launched in December 2024, the mission uses two spacecraft flying in formation with precision down to a few millimeters over a distance of 472 feet (144 meters), functioning together as a giant coronagraph to study the sun’s faint corona and the solar wind.
How Proba-3 Creates Artificial Solar Eclipses in Space
Unlike natural solar eclipses that offer fleeting glances of the sun’s wispy white corona, Proba-3 sustains the phenomenon for hours per orbit. According to mission parameters, one spacecraft carries an occulting disk that blocks the brilliant solar disk, while the companion spacecraft observes the faint corona using an onboard telescope. This formation flying allows researchers to continuously monitor subtle changes in the solar atmosphere over extended periods. In February 2026, engineers successfully recovered the spacecraft following a software anomaly that temporarily disrupted contact, allowing the team to patch software and resume formation operations.
Did you know? Total solar eclipses have driven major scientific breakthroughs for over a century, most famously providing one of the first observational tests of Albert Einstein’s general theory of relativity in 1919.
Surprising Data on the Speed of the Solar Wind
Initial scientific results from the mission have challenged existing models of solar dynamics. By tracking tiny plasma blobs moving through the inner corona, scientists discovered that portions of the slow solar wind travel between 250 and 500 kilometers per second. According to Andrei Zhukov of the Royal Observatory of Belgium, who serves as the principal investigator of Proba-3’s ASPIICS instrument and lead author of a March study, these gusts move three to four times faster than previous predictions anticipated so close to the sun. Researchers also captured detailed observations of intricate flows, jets, and streamers traversing the corona.
Frequently Asked Questions
How long does an artificial eclipse last on Proba-3?
Proba-3 can create artificial eclipses lasting up to six hours per orbit, significantly outlasting natural eclipses viewed from Earth.
What is the primary goal of the Proba-3 mission?
The mission aims to study the sun’s faint inner corona and solar wind by flying two spacecraft in precise formation to act as a single orbital coronagraph.
What instrument captures the inner corona images?
The ASPIICS coronagraph aboard Proba-3 images the inner corona in detail, filling gaps previously left by other solar observation instruments.
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