Proba-3’s Eye on the Sun Reveals Inner Corona and Eruptions

ESA’s Proba-3 uses two formation-flying spacecraft and the ASPIICS coronagraph to image the Sun’s inner corona, showing the hot, faint yellow halo and three helium-emission prominence eruptions observed during a five-hour window on Sept. 21, 2025. The animation combines ASPIICS data with NASA’s SDO/AIA imagery to illustrate how artificial eclipses let scientists study the corona’s dynamics, including prominences (cooler plasma) erupting into space and the corona’s light from scattered sunlight and helium emission.