A group of astrophotographers captured a breathtaking image of the recent "hybrid eclipse," which was visible in the skies above Australia last week. The image mainly shows off the ghostly filaments of the sun's corona, or outer atmosphere, but it also caught a faint glimpse of an eruption of magnetized plasma, known as a coronal mass ejection (CME), exploding away from the sun.
The rare eclipse, which occurred April 20, is known as a hybrid because it consisted of two separate eclipses occurring at the same time. These included a total solar eclipse — a fleeting yet complete occultation of the sun — and an annular solar eclipse: A longer yet incomplete eclipse where a halo of plasma remains visible around the moon. Although the eclipses occurred at the same time, most observers could only see one or the other depending on their location. The total solar eclipse was only visible to people who were perfectly positioned in line with the moon and the sun. Most people would have seen the annular eclipse instead. It was the first hybrid eclipse in more than a decade.
