The proposed MESOM mission will enable scientists to study the conditions that cause solar storms, leading to improvements in space weather forecasts on Earth.
The MESOM spacecraft will fly on an eccentric path enabled by the gravity of the Earth, the Sun and the Moon, and will use the Moon’s shadow to recreate a total solar eclipse in space once every lunar month that lasts about 50 minutes.
The total solar eclipse seen from Earth is usually much shorter and only lasts between 10 seconds and 7.5 minutes, and the annular solar eclipse in the southern hemisphere on Wednesday, October 2, is expected to last about 7 minutes.
Creating a longer eclipse in space could allow the MESOM team to capture high-quality images and measurements of the sun’s corona, filling gaps in current understanding of the physical processes taking place in the solar atmosphere that lead to space weather.
Not only is space weather dangerous to people or animals on Earth, but solar flares and explosions from the Sun known as coronal mass ejections can cause severe disruptions to power grids, satellites and other communications technologies that modern society depends on.
Professor Lucy Green, from the Mullard Space Science Laboratory at the University of London, a member of the UK core team leading the mission alongside Aberystwyth University and the University of Surrey Space Centre, said: “The MESOM mission will offer scientists a unique opportunity to study and understand how the Sun creates and controls the weather in Earth. outer space. But MESOM also offers the general public an opportunity to interact with the beauty of the spectacle of a total solar eclipse as all our images will be readily available. We aim to reveal the secrets of the sun while inspiring a new generation of space scientists and engineers.”
Professor Hugh Morgan from Aberystwyth University explained: “With our increasing global reliance on wireless technologies, there is an increasing risk of major disruption to daily life on Earth as a result of space weather. “MESOM is an incredibly exciting mission that will advance our scientific understanding of the solar atmosphere and space weather to new levels, enabling us to provide more accurate forecasts and take mitigation actions.”
Source: phys.org
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2024-10-04 00:54:01