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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Science
Ian Sample Science editor

YOU WONT BELIEVE: Landmark space mission set to create artificial solar eclipses using satellites - You Need To See This

Artists's image of two satellites and the sun
If the two satellites operate as intended, the lead spacecraft will cast a shadow on its partner, allowing instruments on the latter to measure the sun’s corona. Photograph: ESA/P Carril

Final preparations have begun for a landmark space mission that will use satellites flying in close formation to create artificial solar eclipses high above the Earth.

The Proba-3 mission is the European Space Agency’s first attempt at precise formation flying in orbit and calls for two spacecraft to loop around the planet in an arrangement that never deviates by more than a millimetre, about the thickness of a human fingernail.

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