The first photos from today’s total solar eclipse are here, and they’re spectacular.
Captured Wednesday (Aug. 12) by NASA scientists during a special eclipse livestream from Spain, the images show the moon completely blocking the visible surface of the sun, plunging the daytime sky into twilight for roughly 90 seconds and allowing our star’s elusive corona (its wispy outer atmosphere) to shine through.
In this incredible image taken with a solar-filtered telescope, the moon appears as a black circle, cloaking the sun. The white spikes of light encircling the moon are the corona, a mysterious part of the sun that is rarely visible to the naked eye. (Why is it so mysterious? For one thing, the corona is millions of degrees hotter than the sun’s surface, and scientists aren’t sure why.)
On the left side of the image, a bright-pink blob shoots off of the solar surface. This is not a solar flare, but a prominence — a towering structure of plasma held in place above the sun by powerful magnetic fields. Prominences often measure many times taller than Earth is wide, making them clearly visible from 93 million miles (150 million kilometers) away.
Another image, taken just before totality, shows “Baily’s Beads” shining in the small gap between the sun and the moon. This effect occurs when the last vestiges of sunlight shine through the uneven mountains on the moon, creating a bright and bumpy spectacle.
Moments before and after totality, a “diamond ring” effect occurs when the last bits of sunlight shine through the uneven mountains on the edge of the moon. These bead-like structures, seen on the left of the image, are known as Baily’s Beads.
(Image credit: NASA)
Today’s eclipse followed a narrow path of totality — the path of the moon’s dark inner shadow cast on Earth — from near the North Pole to Greenland, western Iceland and northern Spain. Viewers outside the path of totality were treated to a partial eclipse of up to 90% coverage in Europe and a much humbler 10% to 25% coverage in the northeastern U.S. and Canada.
Latest Videos FromLive Science
A view of the partial phase of the eclipse over Spain, courtesy of timeanddate.com and NASA’s livestream.
(Image credit: NASA / timeanddate)
The sky show continues tonight as the Perseid meteor shower peaks. Because it’s a new moon (the only time when a solar eclipse is possible), an especially dark sky awaits, with the prospect of up to 75 “shooting stars” visible per hour, according to NASA.
More eclipses are also on the way, with the first coming in just two weeks.
Then, next year, the longest total solar eclipse of the century will be visible from southern Spain and northern Africa. Mark your calendars for Aug. 2, 2027. This is one solar spectacle you won’t want to miss.
Get the world’s most fascinating discoveries delivered straight to your inbox.
