The Sun lies at the center of the solar system and is the nearest star to Earth, lying 150 million kilometers away. It provides essential light and warmth, enabling life on Earth to thrive. Although we normally only see the bright disk, the Sun has an extensive faint atmosphere called the corona, which extends millions of kilometers into space. This is visible from Earth during a total eclipse, when the Moon obscures the Sun's bring surface. The corona is the hottest part of the Sun's surface, reaching several million kelvin. This picture was made during the total eclipse seen from India in 1980. The unexpected colours are the result of using a special gradient filter.