BLINDING light from the Sun鈥檚 surface normally obscures our view of the
corona鈥攐ur parent star鈥檚 hot, thin atmosphere. But by masking the surface
light, instruments on the European Space Agency鈥檚 SOHO satellite reveal the
corona鈥檚 eerie glow. This picture, taken on 23 December, shows the corona with
brighter background stars from the Sagittarius constellation peeking
through.
Billions of tonnes of hot gas are being expelled from the solar surface in
three huge spurts. These coronal mass ejections occur about once a day. The
trace in the lower left of the picture is a trail of dusty debris left by a
wayward comet that entered SOHO鈥檚 field of view on 22 December and crashed into
the Sun a day later. It is believed to be a remnant of a larger comet that was
shattered by the Sun鈥檚 gravitational forces some 900 years ago.
