The European Space Agency (ESA) is Europe’s gateway to space. Its mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world.
Find out more about space activities in our 23 Member States, and understand how ESA works together with their national agencies, institutions and organisations.
Exploring our Solar System and unlocking the secrets of the Universe
Go to topicProtecting life and infrastructure on Earth and in orbit
Go to topicUsing space to benefit citizens and meet future challenges on Earth
Go to topicMaking space accessible and developing the technologies for the future
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This composite image of the Sun and its corona was taken by the ESA/NASA SOHO satellite and ESA's Proba-2 satellite yesterday, during the time of Earth’s total solar eclipse.
The central image shows an extreme-ultraviolet image of the solar disc taken by Proba-2 at 18:55 GMT, while the corona and extended atmospheric features are seen by SOHO in the red image from 2–6 solar radii, and beyond in blue (SOHO can see up to about 32 solar radii) at 18:48 and 19:06 GMT, respectively. The black circular region corresponds to an occulting mask to cut out direct sunlight that would otherwise obscure the details close to the Sun – similar to the effect of the Moon in a total solar eclipse. As such, these images provide important context for images captured during the eclipse by ground-based astronomers.
The image was composed using JHelioviewer.