![\"Proba](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/proba-3-precise-formation-flying-to-observe-the-suns-corona-1200x727.jpg\"\/)
Proba-3. Precise formation flying to observe the Sun\u2019s corona \u2013 \u00a9 ESA<\/p>\n
The mission<\/a> launched on December 5, 2024, and six weeks later, the spacecraft separated in orbit. By March, they successfully performed their first autonomous formation flight. In April, they began achieving their main objective: keeping the perfect formation needed to block the Sun and expose the corona for sustained observation. This level of precision flying has never before been demonstrated in space.<\/p>\n According to mission manager Damien Galano, the system is already delivering on its promise. Thanks to the onboard technologies that guide formation flying, the satellites can now generate an eclipse once every orbit, which takes 19 hours and 40 minutes, and maintain it for up to six hours. That gives researchers steady, high-quality access to the inner corona, something they previously only glimpsed in fragments.<\/p>\n Observing The Invisible Zone Of The Inner Corona<\/p>\n The inner corona is the area just above the Sun\u2019s visible surface. It plays a key role in solar wind acceleration and is also the region where coronal mass ejections (CMEs) often begin. These massive eruptions of charged particles can interfere with satellites, radio communications, and power grids on Earth.<\/p>\n Before Proba-3, scientists could observe the Sun\u2019s surface and the far outer corona with instruments in space, but not the inner region in between. On Earth, total eclipses only provided brief glimpses, rare and geographically limited. That left the most critical region of solar activity largely uncharted.<\/p>\n According to Earth.com<\/a>, the mission has already changed that. In one notable sequence from July 16, data from three ESA missions, Proba-2, Proba-3, and SOHO, were combined to create a full view of a CME. The Sun\u2019s surface and low corona were shown in yellow, the outer corona in red, and the once-hidden inner corona in green.<\/p>\n \u201cYou can see the CME forming at the edge of the solar disc, captured by Proba-2,\u201d said<\/a> Andrei Zhukov, principal investigator for the ASPIICS coronagraph. \u201cIt extends into the inner coronal region, which is now visible to us thanks to Proba-3, before reaching the high corona observed by SOHO.\u201d This combination revealed, for the first time, the complete development of a solar eruption from its origin outward.<\/p>\n Regular Solar Monitoring Redefines Space Weather Research<\/p>\n