Stunning pictures show the first ever artificial solar eclipse
The Proba-3 mission, consisting of two spacecraft that fly in close formation to study the sun, has returned images of the first ever artificial solar eclipse
By Alex Wilkins
16 June 2025
The sun’s corona, shown similarly to how a human eye would see it during an eclipse, but through a green filter
ESA/Proba-3/ASPIICS
A carefully coordinated dance between twin satellites has created the first artificial solar eclipse in space, revealing the sun’s scorching corona in extreme detail.
The Proba-3 mission, which launched in December last year, is operated by the European Space Agency (ESA) and consists of two satellites flying at a distance of 150 metres from each other.
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One of the satellites, called the Occulter, carries a 1.4-metre-wide carbon fibre and plastic disc, which blocks out the sun’s light for the second satellite, the Coronagraph, which is equipped with a camera and scientific instruments. To take the pictures, there can’t be more than a 1-millimetre error in how the two satellites are aligned.
In March, the satellites flew autonomously and lined up for several hours, taking multiple seconds-long exposures of the eclipsed sun. ESA scientists could stitch these together to produce full photos of the sun’s corona, the outermost part of its atmosphere, which can reach temperatures that are millions of degrees hotter than its surface.
