The Sun’s outer atmosphere—the corona—only reveals itself during total solar eclipses, which happen about every 18 months on Earth, and are only visible along a narrow path. These events offer scientists a rare opportunity to observe the Sun’s violent surface—but now, they won’t have to wait on the cosmos to do so.

Two satellites just carefully lined up to form a perfect "artificial total solar eclipse" in orbit. Earlier this year, the two probes, which are part of the European Space Agency's Proba-3 mission, positioned themselves in a perfect line 492 feet apart to have one of them perfectly obfuscate the Sun's rays.