August 13, 2017
On your birthday, the Earth completed another orbit — 584 million miles traveled since your last celebration.
Detailed View of a Solar Eclipse Corona
Birthday · August 13, 2017
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APOD published August 13, 2017. Credit: Miloslav Druckm�ller (Brno U. of Tech.), Martin Dietzel, Peter Aniol, Vojtech Ru�in. 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 2008 August total solar eclipse from Mongolia. 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 above the Sun's limb. A similar solar corona might be visible through clear skies in a thin swath across the USA during a total solar eclipse that occurs just one week from tomorrow. Citizen Science: How to participate during the Aug. 21 eclipse.
Image credit: Miloslav Druckm�ller (Brno U. of Tech.), Martin Dietzel, Peter Aniol, Vojtech Ru�in