A pair of European satellites have successfully created artificial solar eclipses by maneuvering in precise formation, providing scientists with hours of totality on demand.

Launched by the European Space Agency late last year, these orbiting satellites have been producing simulated solar eclipses since March while orbiting tens of thousands of miles above Earth.

Flying 492 feet apart, one satellite blocks the sun like the moon does during a natural total solar eclipse, while the other focuses its telescope on the corona, the sun's outer atmosphere that forms a crown or halo of light.

This intricate dance requires extreme precision by the cube-shaped spacecraft, which are less than 5 feet in size. Their positioning accuracy needs to be within a mere millimeter, achieved autonomously through GPS navigation, star trackers, lasers, and radio links.

Dubbed Proba-3, this $210 million mission has successfully generated 10 solar eclipses during the ongoing checkout phase. The longest eclipse lasted five hours, with scientists aiming for six hours of totality per eclipse once scientific observations begin.

Scientists are already excited by the preliminary results, as the corona is visible without the need for special image processing. Lead scientist Andrei Zhukov from the Royal Observatory of Belgium expressed amazement at the success of the first attempt.

It is anticipated that an average of two solar eclipses per week will be produced for a total of nearly 200 during the two-year mission, providing over 1,000 hours of totality. This will be a significant scientific opportunity, as natural solar eclipses only offer a few minutes of totality on average once every 18 months.

The unique aspect of this mission is that the sun-shrouding disk and telescope are on two different satellites, providing scientists with a better look at the part of the corona closest to the limb of the sun.

ESA's mission manager Damien Galano expressed satisfaction with the quality of the images, attributing it to the unprecedented accuracy of formation flying.

AP journalist John Leicester contributed to this report from Paris.