Two devices developed by the European Space Agency as part of the Proba-3 mission were launched yesterday at 13 :34 Bulgarian time with the Indian polar satellite launch vehicle. She brought out the devices in the so-called elongated orbit with an inclination of 59° relative to the equator. These devices aim to create artificial solar eclipses for a more detailed study of the Sun.
The larger satellite is called the Coronagraph and is equipped with instruments to capture images of the Sun's corona, or outer atmosphere. The smaller Occulter spacecraft is equipped with navigation sensors and low-impulse thrusters that will help it position itself within about 150 meters of the Coronagraph, the distance needed for Occulter's 1.4-meter-diameter screen to obscure the sun's disk . It will block the star's blinding light and cast a shadow over the Coronagraph, allowing it to study the heated gases that make up the Sun's corona.
Under natural conditions, the solar corona is hidden from the star's bright light and can only be observed from Earth during total solar eclipses that last several minutes
Attempts to replicate this effect have been made using coronagraphs, spacecraft used in previous missions. However, they were placed on the same devices as the observation equipment, which reduced efficiency due to diffraction and other optical effects. Therefore, it was decided to place the artificial eclipse disk on a separate satellite, which became the basis of the Proba-3 mission.
Coronagraph will take images every two seconds, allowing scientists to study the rapid plasma waves thought to cause the corona to heat up. Another object of study will be the glow of plasma jets, which, according to scientists, play an important role in accelerating the solar wind - a stream of particles carried away from the Sun at a speed of up to 2 million km/h. Finally, Proba-3 will help confirm the ability to maintain a fixed distance between the two vehicles for a long time, which will become the basis for future missions to return samples of Martian soil and clear the Earth's orbit of space debris.