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How Europe Plans to Make the Longest Eclipse In History
On Proba 3, Europe’s mission to eclipse the Sun on demand
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It is possible, if you can move fast enough, to outpace the shadow of the Moon. In 1973 someone actually did this: they took a prototype of Concorde, serial number 001, cut holes in the roof for cameras and telescopes, and then flew at supersonic speeds across the deserts of northern Africa.
Their goal was a total eclipse of the Sun, or, more precisely, the darkest moment of that eclipse: the point of totality. This is a special moment. The Earth, Moon and Sun fall into perfect alignment; the disc of the Moon, thanks to an odd coincidence, exactly covers the disc of the Sun, and for a few brief minutes the world falls dark.
Strange things happen in those minutes. Birds stop singing. Animals prepare, as though it were night, to sleep. Temperatures fall, winds slow. The Moon itself appears inky black and around it, streaming out in all directions, radiates a cloud of shimmering white filaments. Even the stars themselves can seem to shift: it was during an eclipse, in 1919, that Arthur Eddington first proved the truth of Einstein’s relativity.
