Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.<\/p>\n
Explanation: This total solar eclipse appeared not only poetically beautiful but scientifically interesting. Usually the\u00a0solar corona\u00a0appears white, and to some observers the corona of last week's total solar eclipse did appear\u00a0this pearly color. But this time, totality observers in Spain saw a corona that appeared unusually golden. For one reason, from\u00a0Spain, the totality occurred when the setting Sun was near the horizon. That low, sunlight travels through a large amount of\u00a0air which scatters\u00a0out blue light. An unusual amount of\u00a0smoke in the air\u00a0from nearby\u00a0forest fires acted as a second filter,\u00a0further scattering\u00a0the remaining blue tones and deepening the already gold-dominated\u00a0light. The\u00a0HDR-processed, multiple-exposure\u00a0featured image\u00a0was captured from Benavente, Spain last week. One thing that did not appear golden was a\u00a0hydrogen-glowing\u00a0prominence\u00a0that hovered over the\u00a0Sun's left edge — its original bright pink\u00a0color survived.Gallery: Solar Eclipse of 2026 August 12Tomorrow's picture: fast meteors<\/p>\n