The proposed MESOM (Moon-Enabled Solar Occultation Mission) will enable an international team of researchers to study the conditions that create solar storms, leading to improvements in forecasts of space weather on Earth.
The MESOM spacecraft will fly on a trajectory enabled by the gravitational attraction of the Earth, the Sun and the Moon, and will use the shadow of the Moon to re-create a total solar eclipse in space once every lunar month lasting almost 50 minutes.
Total solar eclipses seen from Earth last between 10 seconds and 7.5 minutes, with the annular solar eclipse in the Southern Hemisphere on October 2, 2024, expected to last around seven minutes.
Creating a longer eclipse in space will enable the MESOM team to take high-quality images and measurements of the Sun’s corona, filling gaps in existing understanding of the physical processes taking place in the solar atmosphere that lead to space weather.
Solar flares and eruptions from the Sun - coronal mass ejections - can cause severe disruption to power grids, satellites and other communication technologies.
In a statement, Dr Nicola Baresi from the Surrey Space Centre said: “Solar flares and coronal mass ejections originate from the innermost layers of the Sun’s atmosphere, which remains elusive to current space-based instrumentation and can only be viewed in greater detail during total eclipses.
“By creating eclipses that last up to 48 minutes in space, rather than the maximum 7.5 minutes we manage to see on Earth, we stand a much better chance of unlocking their secrets.”
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Professor Huw Morgan, head of the Space Physics Group at Aberystwyth University, is a member of the core UK team leading the mission alongside the Mullard Space Science Laboratory at UCL and Surrey Space Centre.
“As we become globally more dependent on wireless technologies, there is a growing risk of major disruption to everyday life on Earth as a result of space weather.” Prof Morgan said in a statement. “MESOM is an incredibly exciting mission which will advance our scientific understanding of the solar atmosphere and space weather to new levels, enabling us to provide more accurate forecasts and take mitigating action.
“In Aberystwyth, as members of the core UK team, we are closely involved in a study mapping out the feasibility of the mission which is due to be launched in the early 2030s. We are also working with international experts in solar physics, solar atmospherics and leading experience in solar-observing space missions.”
Professor Lucie Green from UCL’s Mullard Space Science Laboratory said that MESOM will offer the public an opportunity to ‘engage with the beauty and spectacle of a total solar eclipse’ as all images will be available to view.
“We aim to reveal the secrets of the Sun whilst inspiring a new generation of space scientists and engineers," she said.
The MESOM feasibility study is a one-year project funded by the UK Space Agency.
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