Explanation:
On Monday, part of the Sun went missing.
The missing piece was no cause for concern -- the Moon was only momentarily in the way.
The event was not a
total eclipse of the Sun for any Earth-bound sky enthusiast
but rather, at best, an
annular eclipse, where the
Moon blocked most of the Sun.
Because of the relatively large distance to the Moon during this
Earth-Moon-Sun alignment, the Moon did not have a large enough
angular size to block the
entire Sun.
Those who witnessed the solar eclipse from a
narrow path through
Spain and
Africa,
however, were lucky enough to see the coveted
Ring of Fire, a dark Moon completely surrounded
by the brilliant light of the distant Sun.
Pictured above is a
Ring of Fire captured two days ago in unusually
high resolution above Spain.
The resulting image shows details of the
granular solar surface as well as many
prominences around the Sun.
