Europe's Proba-3 mission will create an 'artificial eclipse' to the study sun's corona

An illustration of two satellites in space, separated by a relatively short distance. In the back, there is the sun.

While the world eagerly awaits the total solar eclipse in April, scientists are already planning observations for the next — except this will be an "artificial" one. Here's what that means.

Proba-3, a mission led by the European Space Agency (ESA), has been in the making for at least 14 years. It's due to finally launch this September, and is designed to better detect tiny, faint features in the sun's extremely dim outer atmosphere called the corona.