CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — A pair of European satellites rocketed into orbit Thursday on the first mission to create artificial solar eclipses through fancy formation flying in space.
Each fake eclipse should last six hours once operations begin next year. That's considerably longer than the few minutes of totality offered by a natural eclipse here on Earth, allowing for prolonged study of the sun's corona, or outer atmosphere.
The launch took place from India.
“We are a very happy science team here” in India, the European Space Agency's mission scientist Joe Zender said via email.
Billed as a tech demo, the two satellites will separate in a month or so and fly 492 feet (150 meters) apart once reaching their destination high above Earth, lining up with the sun so that one spacecraft casts a shadow on the other.
This will require extreme precision, within just one millimeter, equivalent to a fingernail's thickness, according to the European Space Agency. To maintain their position, the satellites will rely on GPS, star trackers, lasers and radio links, flying autonomously.
Each cube-shaped spacecraft is less than 5 feet (1.5 meters) across. The shadow-casting satellite holds a disk to block the sun from the telescope on the other satellite. This disk will mimic the moon in a natural total solar eclipse, with the darkened satellite posing as Earth.
“This has a huge scientific relevance” in addition to testing high-precision formation flying,” said the European Space Agency’s technology and engineering director Dietmar Pilz.
Scientists need the glaring face of the sun completely blocked in order to scrutinize the wispy crown-like corona encircling it, getting an especially good look close to the solar rim on this mission. They're particularly interested to learn why the corona is hotter than the surface of the sun, and also want to better understand coronal mass ejections, eruptions of billions of tons of plasma with magnetic fields out into space.
The resulting geomagnetic storms can disrupt power and communication on Earth and in orbit. Such outbursts can also produce stunning auroras in unexpected places.
With a lopsided orbit stretching from 370 miles (600 kilometers) to 37,000 miles (60,000 kilometers) away, the satellites will take nearly 20 hours to circle the world. Six of those hours — at the farther end of certain orbits — will be spent generating an eclipse. Other orbits will be strictly for formation flying experiments, according to the European Space Agency.
The first eclipse results should be available in March, following checkout of both craft.
Zender said eclipses will be created at least twice a week, with six hours of totality each time for corona observations. The frequency will depend on solar activity, he noted, and prove a boon for scientists who now must travel across the world for a mere three to five minutes of totality during the occasional eclipse.
The $210 million mission, dubbed Proba-3, is aiming for at least 1,000 hours of “on demand” totality during its two-year operation. Once their job is done, both satellites will gradually drop lower until they burn up in the atmosphere, likely within five years.
Liftoff was delayed a day by a last-minute issue with the backup propulsion system of one of the satellites, crucial for precision formation flying. The European Space Agency said engineers relied on a computer software fix.
The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
This image taken from video provided by the European Space Agency shows the launching of a rocket from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, India on Thursday, Dec. 5, 2024. A pair of European satellites rocketed into orbit Thursday on the first mission to create artificial solar eclipses through fancy formation flying in space. (European Space Agency via AP)
This image provided by the European Space Agency shows a pair of probes creating an artificial total solar eclipse through formation flying. (European Space Agency via AP)
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korean investigators asked prosecutors to indict the country's detained President Yoon Suk Yeol over his short-lived imposition of martial law last month, as it accused him of rebellion, abuse of power and obstruction of parliament on Thursday.
Yoon defended his actions again as he appeared at a court hearing for the second time Thursday, saying the Dec. 3 martial law decree was only meant to inform the public of the danger of an opposition-controlled National Assembly. He argued that the martial law imposition ended early because he quickly withdrew troops after the assembly voted down his decree.
“The reason for the declaration of martial law wasn't about a warning to the opposition. I was trying to appeal to the people to draw their strict supervision and criticism of the opposition,” Yoon told a hearing at the Constitutional Court. “No matter how many warnings I would issue to the opposition, they would have been useless.”
Yoon was impeached and suspended by the assembly on Dec. 14. The Constitutional Court is now deliberating to determine whether to formally throw Yoon out of office or reinstate him.
Appearing at the same hearing, Yoon's defense minister at the time of the martial law enforcement, Kim Yong Hyun, supported the president's argument, saying that he drew up the decree and proposed it to Yoon.
Kim, a close associate of Yoon who is also in detention, claimed that Yoon asked him to remove a public curfew from the decree, deploy a much smaller number of soldiers to the assembly than he initially proposed, and prevent troops from carrying live ammunition.
Kim’s arguments couldn't immediately be independently verified. He has previously said all responsibility for the imposition of martial law rests solely with him. He was stopped from attempting suicide while in detention, days after the ill-fated martial law enactment.
Since taking office in 2022, Yoon, a conservative, has grappled with near-constant frictions with the main liberal opposition Democratic Party, which has obstructed his agenda and impeached some of his top officials. In his announcement of martial law, Yoon called the assembly “a den of criminals” that was bogging down government affairs, and vowed to eliminate “shameless North Korea followers and anti-state forces.”
Yoon's martial law, the first of its kind in South Korea for more than 40 years, lasted only six hours. Yoon sent troops and police officers to the National Assembly, but enough lawmakers managed to enter the assembly chamber and called for an end to the emergency decree in a unanimous vote.
Yoon and Kim have said that his dispatch of troops and police forces was designed to maintain order. But the opposition and investigative authorities believe they tried to seal the assembly to prevent lawmakers from overturning his decree and plotted to detain some politicians. Yoon and Kim denied that.
Earlier Thursday, the Corruption Investigation Office for High-Ranking Officials said that Yoon, in collaboration with Kim and other military commanders, allegedly committed rebellion by staging a “riot" and seeking to undermine the constitution when he declared martial law. The CIO also accused Yoon of abusing his power by mobilizing troops for an illegitimate purpose and obstructing parliament’s right to vote on ending martial law.
By law, the leader of a rebellion can face life in prison or the death penalty. Since being detained by the CIO, Yoon has rebuffed efforts to question him. He argues that the investigation and his detention are illegal.
“As you know, despite facing a nationally grave allegation as ringleader of a rebellion, the suspect has been constantly maintaining uncooperative stance and defying criminal judicial proceedings,” Lee Jae-seung, deputy chief prosecutor at the CIO, told a televised briefing.
Yoon’s defense team issued a statement accusing the CIO of “humiliating” Yoon by trying to pressure him to speak to investigators and abusing his human rights by preventing him from contacting family members.
In his first appearance at a Constitutional Court hearing on Tuesday, Yoon denied that he ordered the military to drag lawmakers out of the National Assembly to prevent them from voting. Commanders of military units that were sent to the assembly have testified that Yoon ordered them to pull lawmakers out.
Yoon’s martial law decree has shaken South Korean politics and financial markets and hurt its international image. Yoon’s subsequent defiance and the opposition’s push to oust him have also intensified South Korea’s already-serious internal divide.
A TV screen shows footage of impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol during a news program at the Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
