Before the launch of the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) in 1995, astronomers had never seen anything like this. Behold, a #solar #storm passing directly in front of the #Pleiades:
SOHO recorded this rare conjunction on May 21st. An erupting filament of magnetism near the sun's north pole propelled the #CME into space just as the #SevenSisters were passing by. #Electra, #Taygete, #Maia, #Celaeno, #Alcyone, #Sterope, and #Merope spent nearly three hours shining through the translucent solar storm.
When SOHO left Earth almost 30 years ago, it carried the first realtime #coronagraph into #space. Coronagraphs are devices that create an #artificial #eclipse, blocking the glare of the #sun to reveal nearby #stars, #planets, and #comets. No telescope on Earth could see something as faint as the Pleiades only a few degrees from the sun, but SOHO does it all the time.
https://spaceweather.com/
