Total Solar Eclipse, 2017

This composite image captures three different views of the total solar eclipse of August 21, 2017.

“Prominence” (left), the red flame-like structures, is plasma erupting from the solar surface. While they look small in the image, multiple Earths can fit into each of them.

“Corona” (middle) shows the delicate features of the sun’s corona. The corona is the outer layer of the sun’s atmosphere and extends millions of kilometres from the sun, with temperature reaching a million degrees Celsius.

“Diamond ring” (right) was captured at the end of totality, when the first rays of sunlight shone through depressions from craters on the lunar surface. The bloom from the strong sunlight formed the “diamond” on the ring of corona. The same phenomenon can also be seen at the beginning of totality.

These images were captured at Rock Island State Park, Tennessee.