Last week’s total solar eclipse produced a striking sight in Spain, where the Sun’s corona appeared a rich golden color instead of its usual white or silvery tone, according to ScienceDaily.
During a total eclipse, the Moon blocks the bright face of the Sun and reveals the corona, the Sun’s outer atmosphere. The color shift in Spain happened because totality occurred while the Sun was already low on the horizon, forcing sunlight to pass through more of Earth’s atmosphere.
That longer path through the air scattered more of the shorter blue wavelengths, similar to the way sunsets can look orange or red. Smoke from nearby forest fires added to the effect by filtering out even more of the remaining blue light.
The featured image was created with multiple exposures and HDR processing and was captured in Benavente, Spain. A large solar prominence on the Sun’s left side stayed pink because it emitted strongly in light associated with hydrogen.
