Science

The year was 2001 - the first of the new millennium. It was also the year astronomers reached a historic milestone: they had catalogued more planets orbiting distant stars than the eight we knew about in our own solar system!

There are many features of the sun that will likely be seen during the total solar eclipse including the spectacular corona, helmet streamers, the thin red ring of the chromosphere, and perhaps a few prominences.

There are many features of the sun that will likely be seen during the total solar eclipse including the spectacular corona, helmet streamers, the thin red ring of the chromosphere, and perhaps a few prominences.

Normally, the brilliant surface of the sun, called the photosphere, is the most common feature we see, and even so its brightness masks many other important regions of the sun from easy view. But once you filter out the light from the photosphere, all other fainter regions vanish completely.

One of the most beautiful things about viewing the solar corona during a total solar eclipse is the light from the corona itself. Why is it that the corona shines with such a unique color and texture?

Although the solar corona has been repeatedly observed during total solar eclipses, and remarked about for thousands of years, the next most common solar feature, the prominence, is much rarer. The earliest observation was recorded in the 14th-century Laurentian Chronicle during the solar eclipse of May 1, 1185 CE:

Observations of the Eclipse from the International Space Station