A pair of satellites rocketed into orbit Thursday from India. Their mission? Create fake solar eclipses. 

The European Space Agency mission is the first of its kind.

Each cube-shaped spacecraft is less than five feet across. The satellites will fly in a fancy formation. They’ll separate in a month or so. Then they’ll fly 492 feet apart high above Earth. They’ll line up with the Sun. One spacecraft holds a disk. The disk will cast a shadow on the other satellite. The disc will act like the Moon does during a natural total solar eclipse.  

Each solar eclipse should last six hours. That’s way longer than regular solar eclipses, which last only a few minutes each. The extra-long timeframe will allow people to better study the Sun’s corona (outer atmosphere).

For all this to work, the satellites have to line up in exactly the right spot. They can’t be off by more than a millimeter. (A millimeter is just a little longer than a credit card is thick!) The satellites will use GPS, star trackers, lasers, and radio links to stay in the right place.  

One thing scientists want to learn from this mission: Why is the Sun’s corona hotter than the Sun’s surface? They also want to better understand coronal mass ejections. (Those are eruptions on the Sun. They send huge amounts of plasma into space. This causes geomagnetic storms. The storms can interrupt power and communication on Earth.)

The satellites have a lopsided orbit. As they move around Earth, they’ll sometimes be 370 miles away. Other times, they’ll be 37,000 miles away. A whole trip around the globe takes nearly 20 hours. 

The first eclipse results should be available in March. The satellites will create eclipses at least twice a week.

After two years, the job will be done. Both satellites will gradually drop lower until they burn up in Earth’s atmosphere.

From the rising of the Sun to its setting, the name of the Lord is to be praised! — Psalm 113:3