Discover the cosmosEach day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.
Explanation:This total solar eclipse appeared not only poetically beautiful but scientifically interesting.
Usually thesolar coronaappears white, and to some observers the corona of last week’s total solar eclipse did appearthis pearly color.
But this time, totality observers in Spain saw a corona that appeared unusually golden.
For one reason, from Spain, the totality occurred when the setting Sun was near the horizon.
That low, sunlight travels through a large amount ofair which scattersout blue light.
An unusual amount ofsmoke in the airfrom nearbyforest firesacted as a second filter, further scatteringthe remaining blue tones and deepening the already gold-dominatedlight.
TheHDR-processed, multiple-exposurefeatured imagewas captured from Benavente, Spainlast week.
One thing that did not appear golden was ahydrogen-glowingprominencethat hovered over the Sun‘s left edge — its originalbright pinkcolor survived.
Gallery:Solar Eclipse of 2026 August 12Tomorrow’s picture:fast meteors