Recorded Wednesday (Aug. 12) by NASA researchers throughout an unique

eclipse livestream

from Spain, the images reveal the moon entirely obstructing the noticeable surface area of

the sun

plunging the daytime sky into golden for approximately 90 seconds and enabling our star’s evasive corona (its wispy external environment) to shine through.

In this unbelievable image taken with a solar-filtered telescope, the moon looks like a black circle, masking the sun. The white spikes of light surrounding the moon are the corona, a mystical part of the sun that is seldom noticeable to the naked eye. (Why is it so mystical? For something,

the corona is countless degrees hotter than the sun’s surface area

and researchers aren’t sure why.)

On the left side of the image, a bright-pink blob shoots off of the solar surface area. This is not a solar flare, however a prominence– an imposing structure of plasma kept in location above the sun by effective electromagnetic fields. Prominences typically determine lot of times taller than Earth is broad, making them plainly noticeable from 93 million miles (150 million kilometers) away.

Another image, taken right before totality, reveals “Baily’s Beads” shining in the little space in between the sun and the moon. This result takes place when the last vestiges of sunshine shine through the irregular mountains on the moon, developing a brilliant and rough phenomenon.