The sun's outer
atmosphere―the corona—is visible
to the eye only at times of a
rare total solar eclipse, such
as this one shot from Salloum,
Egypt on March 29, 2006. Great
equatorial streamers extend a
million miles into space and,
closer to the sun's edge,
intricate polar brushes trace
the star's magnetic field lines.
No single exposure can
ever
hope to capture the full 10,000:1 brightness range of a
total solar eclipse, so this image
required 36 hours to blend six separate exposures into
one that shows the intricate coronal structure visible
to the eye that day. |