Satellites sent into space to create artificial eclipses
- December 8, 2024
- 0
On December 5, the Indian launch vehicle PSLV-XL successfully launched a pair of European satellites of the Proba-3 mission into orbit. They were designed to study the solar
On December 5, the Indian launch vehicle PSLV-XL successfully launched a pair of European satellites of the Proba-3 mission into orbit. They were designed to study the solar corona, the rarest and hottest layer of our star’s atmosphere, whose temperature is millions of degrees.
To tackle this task, European Space Agency (ESA) engineers built two devices. One of them will act as an artificial moon for the other. The devices are currently in a highly elliptical orbit with a perigee of 600 kilometers and an apogee of 60,000 kilometers.
The satellites will remain connected to each other for the coming weeks until engineers complete a functional check of all systems. Then, at the beginning of 2025, the separation of the devices will occur: they will be separated at a distance of 144 meters (their position relative to each other will be controlled with millimeter precision).
If all goes as planned, observations of the solar corona will begin around April 2025. The first device will block the Sun for the other, which will make it possible to observe the inner layers of the solar corona.
Also read – Hubble notices strange structures near monster black hole
Source: Port Altele
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