Solar corona viewed by Proba-3’s ASPIICS

The Sun’s inner corona, coloured artificially to appear violet, in an image taken on 23 May 2025 by the ASPIICS coronagraph aboard Proba-3, ESA’s formation-flying mission capable of creating artificial total solar eclipses in orbit.

This image shows the corona in polarised white light, captured using a special technique which allows scientists to separate the hot corona’s polarized light from the light scattered by interplanetary dust.

See more images from Proba-3’s first artificial solar eclipse here.

[Image description: This is an image of the Sun taken during an artificial solar eclipse. Against a black background, the Sun’s bright body is covered by a black disc, and violet hair-like tendrils extend from the black disc in all directions. Brighter violet light peeks from behind the black disc’s edge, slowly fading towards the outer edges of the image.]