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ESA’s Proba 3 is Unlocking Secrets of the Solar Wind

Universe Today·David Dickinson·about 1 month ago
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In a first, ESA’s Proba-3 space-based coronagraph tracks space weather back to its source. It has been a dream of astronomers and solar scientists for ages. A new mission gives solar researchers a powerful new tool in their arsenal: on-demand, total solar eclipses. Launched in 2024 , The European Space Agency’s Proba-3 mission has proven the feasibility of a free-flying, space-based coronagraph. Now, first science results from the mission are giving us a view of the origin of space weather. The results were recently published in *The Astrophysical Journal Letters*. The mission works with two spacecraft flying in formation: the Occulter spacecraft which physically blocks out the Sun, and the Coronagraph, which observes the eclipse and the solar corona. The two spacecraft follow a looping, highly elliptical orbit around the Earth in a 19.7 hour period. Observations for the mission are possible in the hours near apogee, 60,530 kilometers from Earth past geosynchronous/geostationary orbit.…

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