Total solar eclipse on August 12, 2026, will offer unusually detailed view of sun's corona, scientists say

Scientists said the total solar eclipse on August 12, 2026, visible from Greenland, Iceland, Spain and the Balearic Islands, will be an unusual sky event. Totality will last a maximum of 2 minutes and 18 seconds, leaving the moon positioned directly over the sun. Researchers noted the eclipse will occur during the declining phase of the sun's 25th solar cycle, following its peak in October 2024, which is expected to give the corona an irregular appearance. The monthly sunspot number is projected to be around 102, lower than the 144 recorded during the 2024 eclipse but higher than the figures for the 2017, 2019 and 2020 eclipses. According to the scientists, this is expected to produce a corona with a mixed structure, featuring long streamers alongside sharp, spiked extensions. They added that the precise shape of the corona can only be determined on the day of the eclipse, since it depends on the position of sunspots and prominences immediately before the event. The short totality window will also allow pink hydrogen plasma prominences to be visible simultaneously, and rare phenomena such as coronal mass ejections are expected to be captured by long-exposure cameras.