The Sun’s outer atmosphere—the corona—only reveals itself during total solar eclipses, which happen about every 18 months on Earth, and are only visible along a narrow path. These events offer scientists a rare opportunity to observe the Sun’s violent surface—but now, they won’t have to wait on the cosmos to do so.

A European space agency created the first "artificial total solar eclipse" using a pair of satellites on Monday. The space agency Proba-3 showed the first images of the Sun's outer atmosphere -- the solar corona.