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.

Today, the European Space Agency's Proba-3 mission unveils its first images of the sun's outer atmosphere—the solar corona. The mission's two satellites, able to fly as a single spacecraft thanks to a suite of onboard positioning technologies,