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The Sun\u2019s inner corona appears faint yellow in this image taken on 25 March 2025 by the ASPIICS coronagraph aboard Proba-3, ESA\u2019s formation-flying mission capable of creating artificial total solar eclipses in orbit.<\/p>\n
The ASPIICS instrument captures the solar corona in two different \u2018spectral lines\u2019, each line corresponding to a different element contained in the coronal gases.<\/p>\n
This image, captured in the spectral line emitted by helium atoms, shows the solar corona similarly to how a human eye would see it during an eclipse through a yellow filter.<\/p>\n
A grid shows the true position of the Sun behind the mission\u2019s occulter, slightly off-centre. This image was acquired while the ASPIICS instrument was off-pointed, bringing the bright disc of the Sun as close as possible to the occulter\u2019s edge. Even in this position, ASPIICS was able to make detailed observations, as demonstrated by a cloud of cold plasma visible in the top right.<\/p>\n
Andrei Zhukov, ASPIICS Principal Investigator, explains: \u201cThe corona is extremely hot, about two hundred times hotter than the solar surface itself. Sometimes, clouds of relatively cold plasma are observed near the Sun \u2013 although these are still around 10\u00a0000 degrees, they are much colder than the surrounding million-degree hot plasma \u2013 creating what we call \u2018a\u00a0prominence\u2019. We are very happy to have been able to capture one such structure in one of the first ASPIICS images.\u201d<\/p>\n
See more images from Proba-3\u2019s first artificial solar eclipse here.<\/p>\n
[Image description: This is an image of the Sun taken during an artificial solar eclipse. Against a black background, the Sun\u2019s bright body is covered by a black disc. On this disc, a plot-like grid shows the real position and orientation of the Sun behind it, tilted with the north slightly to the right. Faint yellow light peeks from behind the black disc\u2019s edge, slowly fading towards the outer edges of the image. Close to the disc\u2019s edge, in the top right, a small cloud of bright yellow is visible.]<\/i><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n