The science behind the solar corona: if you are one of the fortunate people with the means to see the next total solar eclipse, you'll catch a glimpse of the Sun's corona (weather permitting); if not, you'll see pictures of the event on this magazine's pages shortly afterward. What makes up the corona that you see during the all-too-brief totality? What shapes it? What makes it glow?

The amazing spectacle that we see when the Moon covers the bright solar disk is the Sun's outer atmosphere. That atmosphere has two clearly distinct components. Eclipse watchers may see [...]