Satellites align to create 'artificial total solar eclipse,' photos show

Two European satellites created an "artificial total solar eclipse" in space, the European Space Agency announced June 16, delivering data that will improve scientists' understanding of the sun and its atmosphere.

The agency said the satellites, named Coronagraph and Occulter, flew 429 feet apart in perfect formation for "several hours" without being controlled from the ground to create the artificial eclipse. The Proba-3 mission, according to the agency, helps scientists examine the sun's corona to study solar winds, the continuous flow of matter from the sun into outer space, and the workings of coronal mass ejections.

"It is exciting to see these stunning images validate our technologies in what is now the world’s first precision formation flying mission," Dietmar Pilz, European Space Agency's director of technology, engineering, and quality, said in a news release.

The mission has created 10 artificial eclipses so far, with the longest being five hours, lead scientist Andrei Zhukov told The Associated Press.

"We almost couldn’t believe our eyes," Zhukov, who works for the Royal Observatory of Belgium, told the news organization service. "This was the first try, and it worked. It was so incredible."

How were the artificial eclipses created?

During the eclipses, the ASPIICS optical instrument on the Coronagraph captured images of the solar corona while the Occulter blocked out the sun's light.

The images were processed by the ASPIICS Science Operations Center at the Royal Observatory of Belgium, where a team of scientists created photos of the corona based on input from the scientific community.

"Current coronagraphs are no match for Proba-3, which will observe the sun’s corona down almost to the edge of the solar surface. So far, this was only possible during natural solar eclipses," said Jorge Amaya, space weather modelling coordinator at the European Space Agency.

The agency added that the Proba-3 mission's images will help computer modeling of the sun's corona.

Amaya pointed to an already completed simulation of Proba-3's first observations, and the agency said that the data could help "offer a comprehensive image of the solar phenomena impacting our planet and help citizens and industry prepare against them."