Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 238, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 October 1918 — Corona of Sun, Latin Word And Its Meaning Is Crown [ARTICLE]

Corona of Sun, Latin Word And Its Meaning Is Crown

Corona is a Latin word meaning crown, hence our English words coronet and coronation. Astronomers apply the word to the crowning circle of light visible during an eclipse of the sun notwithstanding its partial obscuration by the moon. A distinguished astronomer says: “During a total solar eclipse, when the sun is obscured by the moon’s shadow, the dark disk is seen to be surrounded by a ‘glory’ or fringe of radiant light, which is called the corofia.” Another authority says: “The corona is the exterior envelope of the sun, being beyond the photosphere and Chromosphere, invisible in the telescope and unrecognized by the spectroscope, except during a total eclipse of the sun. To ascertain the character and composition of the sun’s corona is the object of scientific observations made during an eclipse.”