When you see a solar eclipse, you often think of the moon passing between the Earth and the sun, then temporarily blocking the sun’s light from reaching Earth. This alignment is known as syzygy (sounds like siz-uh-jee).
However, last week, the European Space Agency (ESA) launched two spacecraft that will aim to mimic the behaviour of the moon by creating an artificial solar eclipse for the first time ever. The idea? To demonstrate the readiness of a technology called precise formation flying (PFF) and to study the sun’s atmosphere, known as the corona. The mission is called Proba-3 (Project for On-Board Autonomy).
