The Sun as seen through SOHO’s LASCO C2 telescope at 06:24 GMT today, on the 20th anniversary of the satellite’s launch.
The small white circle in the centre of the image indicates the position and size of the Sun behind the telescope’s occulting ‘coronograph mask’, seen as the wider disc. The mask blocks out the dazzling light that otherwise drowns out this region, allowing details of the corona – the Sun’s dynamic outer atmosphere – to be seen.