April 2, 2024
The universe has spent billions of years making things that shine. On your birthday, we celebrate one of its quieter masterpieces.
Detailed View of a Solar Eclipse Corona
Birthday · April 2, 2024
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APOD published April 2, 2024. Credit: Phil Hart. A publication-date match, not a photo taken on your date. Independent of NASA.
Only in the fleeting darkness of a total solar eclipse is the light of the solar corona easily visible. Normally overwhelmed by the bright solar disk, the expansive corona, the sun's outer atmosphere, is an alluring sight. But the subtle details and extreme ranges in the corona's brightness, although discernible to the eye, are notoriously difficult to photograph. Pictured here, however, using multiple images and digital processing, is a detailed image of the Sun's corona taken during the April 20, 2023 total solar eclipse from Exmouth, Australia. Clearly visible are intricate layers and glowing caustics of an ever changing mixture of hot gas and magnetic fields. Bright looping prominences appear pink just around the Sun's limb. A similar solar corona might be visible through clear skies in a narrow swath across the North America during the total solar eclipse that occurs just six days from today NASA Coverage: Total Solar Eclipse of 2024 April 8
Image credit: Phil Hart