Sun Coles: Europe will protect the earth thanks to Vigil de l’ESA

No one is talking about it. However, and yet it is a major mission currently developed in Europe: effectively protect the land from the terrible solar eruptions. Moreover, 340 million euros is the value of the contract signed by the European Space Agency (ESA) with Airbus sun coles: europe will protect Defense & Space UK for its Vigil satellite. Meanwhile, responsible for alerting the world in the event of a solar storm before it falls on our planet. Nevertheless, It is therefore a defense mission centered on the activity of our star, the sun.

Here is what Josef Aschbacher, Director General of ESA declared a year ago when signing the said contract: “Vigil will be the first European spatial meteorology satellite 24/7. Furthermore, It will offer a very useful period of time to protect critical infrastructure. Similarly, such as the electrical or mobile communication network on earth, as well as orbit satellites, including the international space station. Vigil will drastically improve the precision. precocity of spatial meteorology alerts thanks to its ideal point of view in deep space.”

Outside the Earth Terre-Sun to best observe solar plasma ejections

Vigil will be the only solar observatory positioned to the point of Lagrange L5. specifically designed to alert us to the space weather. Lagrange points are gravitational balance points, and L5 has the particularity of being out of the sun-soil axis. It is the latter which will allow humanity to best anticipate the direction. intensity of the Furies of our star.

The instruments of this future spatial observatory will be an imaging of the magnetosphere. a helospheric imaging, an ultraviolet imaging, a plasma analyzer, a coronograph and a magnetometer. The majority of these analysis tools will be built in Europe.

The northern lights are magnificent, but the damage can be considerable

During the maximum solar activity, which occur on average every 11 years and from which we are barely going out, it is not uncommon to have the happiness of observing boreal aurora from France, and even in the south of our country.

However, the energy released by the sun can be absolutely colossal. And even considering only the fraction that affects the earth. this energy (expressed in joules) is billions of times more sun coles: europe will protect powerful than that of the atomic bomb launched on Hiroshima. Certainly, such a bomb falls into a localized place. In the case of our star, fortunately, it is spread over a large area of the globe.

A solar storm could cause up to three euros in damage on our infrastructure

“Depending on the severity of the event. estimates start to several billion and could rise up to three trillions of euros for a magnitude event comparable to the largest documented event, that of Carrington in 1859”recalled Holger Krag, head of the Spatial Security Program at ESA.

The biggest solar eruptions. alias CMEs (for coronal mass ejection), are therefore likely to destroy a large part of our electromagnetic installations, that is to say all our modern infrastructures.
It is currently impossible to predict the occurrence of such a disaster. but the more the information is analyzed early and its sun coles: europe will protect nature better understood, the better we can face it and prepare for it. Vigil’s launch is scheduled for 2031.

Want to save even more? Discover our selected promo codes for you.