India’s PSLV rocket has launched two European Proba-3 spacecraft into earth orbit to artificially create solar eclipses on Thursday.
Working together, the satellites will be able to study the sun’s corona. This will allow scientists to obtain new data about our luminary, predict solar storms and prevent the negative impact of coronal emissions on earth.
The PSLV rocket took off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre launch pad on Sriharikota Island in India. Two European Space Agency (ESA) spacecraft Occulter and Coronagraph, launched under the Proba-3 project to study the sun’s corona, were sent into high elliptical Earth orbit.
This was India’s 4th launch this year and 95th all-time. The PSLV rocket launched for the 61st time.
The two satellites will be 150 metres apart in line with the sun. One of them will simulate a solar eclipse: it will completely cover the sun, leaving only its corona visible, while the other will make observations. Working together, the apparatuses will literally be one huge device 150 metres long.
Eclipses allow scientists to see the upper, thinnest and hottest layer of the sun’s atmosphere – the corona, which usually remains invisible because of the bright light. Normal eclipses on earth last only a few minutes and occur about 60 times a century. Proba-3 will be able to study the corona every 19 hours and 36 minutes.
