The central, dark image shows total eclipse

The central, dark image shows total eclipse


The central, dark image shows the total eclipse on March 9, 2016 from Earth

The central, dark image shows the total eclipse on March 9, 2016 from Earth, with the central pupil created by the Sun covered by a dark Moon. Faint structures in the Sun’s corona extend outwards from this disk with the corona imaged in white light, easily visible from the ground only during an eclipse. These structures were then aligned with the false-colored observations of the Sun from NASA and ESA's space-based, Sun-orbiting, Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO). An instrument from SOHO blocks out the disk artificially so that it can see the extended corona.

National Aeronautics and Space Administration