European Space Agency Successfully Creates Artificial Sun Eclipse

JAKARTA - The European Space Agency (ESA) revealed the first achievement of Proba-3 technology launched at the end of last year. The spacecraft managed to create an artificial solar eclipse.

This solar eclipse was formed thanks to the support of the twin satellites belonging to Probe-3, namely Coronagraph and Occulter. Both flew within 150 meters into a perfect or parallel formation, creating an artificial solar eclipse phenomenon in space.

Although only revealed by ESA, this phenomenon was achieved in March 2025. Coronagraph and Occulter are known to be in perfect formation for several hours without being controlled by the team on land.

The solar eclipse can also occur because of the large disk carried by the Occulter satellite. The 1.4-meter-sized Cakram covered the bright sunlight from the view of the Coronagraph spacecraft.

This process also produces an 8cm image in Coronagraph's instrument, namely the Association of Spacecraft for Polarimetric and Imaging Investigation of the Corona of the Sun (ASPIICS). This instrument is specially designed to capture images of the solar corona.

This image was captured when the 5cm aperture was covered by a shadow. According to an ESA statement, ASPIICS was able to capture images of the solar corona without being disturbed by the bright sunlight.

"Many technologies allow Proba-3 to make precise formation flights," said Dietmar Pilz, Director of Technology, Engineering, and ESA Quality. "It's really interesting to see these stunning images validate our technology."

ESA deliberately created artificial solar eclipses to observe the corona. According to the European space agency, the corona is important to observe so that they can reveal the solar wind, the flow of solar matter into space, to how the corona mass (CME) works.