Solar Eclipse Corona

The solar corona, which produces solar wind, is evident in this eclipse. Like other stars its size, the Sun has an outer atmosphere that is slowly but steadily flowing off into space.

This material, consisting mostly of electrically charged atoms called ions, flows outward past the planets in a constant stream called the "solar wind." This wind is a snapshot of the materials in the surface layers of the Sun, which in turn reflects the makeup of the original solar nebula.

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