First came Solar Orbiter, the European Space Agency and NASA mission that revealed the sun's poles for the first time in early June.

Then came Proba-3, less than a week later. It's another European mission, launched from India in December 2024, to observe the solar corona — the outer atmosphere of the sun.

To do that, Proba-3 achieved yet another first.

The mission consists of two spacecraft flying 150 meters (490 feet) apart. Together, they performed a millimeter-precision flying maneuver so that one cast a shadow over the other — creating an artificial solar eclipse.

It allowed Proba-3 to block out the fierce face of the sun, leaving only........

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