April 12, 2016
You were not dropped into the cosmos as a stranger. You came from it entirely: borrowed from stars, carried by Earth, warmed by the Sun, and...
Combined Solar Eclipse Corona from Earth and Space
Birthday · April 12, 2016
A little universe, just for you
Your date.
Ready to give.
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APOD published April 12, 2016. Full image credits are on the original APOD entry below. A publication-date match, not a photo taken on your date. Independent of NASA.
Sometimes, a total eclipse is a good time to eye the Sun. Taking advantage of an unusual juxtaposition of Earth, Moon and Sun, the featured image depicts the total solar eclipse that occurred last month as it appeared -- nearly simultaneously -- from both Earth and space. The innermost image shows the total eclipse from the ground, with the central pupil created by the bright Sun covered by a comparatively dark Moon. Surrounding the blocked solar disk is the tenuous corona of Sun imaged in white light, easily visible from the ground only during an eclipse. Normally, this corona is hard to track far from the Sun, but the featured montage matches it to false-colored observations of the Sun from NASA and ESA's space-based, Sun-orbiting, Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO). Observations like this allow the study of the constantly changing magnetic activity both near and far from the Sun, the same activity that ultimately drives Earth's auroras. APOD is also available in: Arabic, Bahasa Indonesian, Catalan, Chinese, Chinese, Croatian, Czech, Dutch, Farsi, Farsi, Galego, German, French, Hebrew, Japanese, Korean, Montenegrin, Polish, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Slovenian, Spanish, and Turkish