Re-emergence, 2017

The Bailey’s Beads signified the end of totality in the 2017 total solar eclipse. As the moon receded towards the top left, the first rays of sunlight shone through depressions on the lunar surface – valleys or craters – forming the two Bailey’s Beads on the lower right of the eclipsed sun.

Also visible in this image are all three layers of the sun’s atmosphere. The white part of the image is the corona, the outer layer of the sun’s atmosphere which extends millions of kilometres from the sun, with temperature reaching a million degrees Celsius.

The red area on the right side of the eclipsed sun is the chromosphere, the thin middle layer of the sun’s atmosphere. The chromosphere is red due to the large amount of hydrogen present in this layer.

Through the Bailey’s Beads we get a small window to peek at the photosphere, the bottommost layer of the sun’s atmosphere, where sunlight comes from.