Solar Cover-Up
Eclipse as seen by Proba-2
ESA’s new Proba-2 solar observation satellite captured this stunning image of the annular eclipse that as visible across Africa and Asia on January 15. In an annular eclipse the moon is further from the Earth than it would be during a total eclipse, so part of the Sun remains visible. This eclipse has been the longest so far of the new millennia.
Read the ESA news release and watch an animation of the eclipse event here.
Image: ESA/Royal University of Belgium
Posted on January 29, 2010, in sun, The Moon and tagged astronomy, eclipse, ESA, moon, Proba, science, solar, space, sun. Bookmark the permalink. 2 Comments.
OMG! I love how you can actually see the leaping tongues of flame on the sun’s surface!
They’re not actually flames like you’d see in a fire here on Earth, they’re giant bands of superhot plasma held together by magnetic fields. The sun isn’t “on fire”, it’s a ball of nuclear fusion.
Boom.