Earth - Observers on the ground had a rare view of the Sun's active outer atmosphere, or corona. Glowing loops of plasma called solar prominences could also be seen extending into the corona. Plasma is super-hot ionized gas which flows along the tangled and twisted structure of the Sun's magnetic fields. 'This view of the corona will never happen again, ever,' said Michael Kirk, a research scientist in the Heliophysics Division at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center during a live broadcast of the eclipse from Dallas, Texas. During the broadcast, Kirk noted that the spiky and asymmetrical nature of the corona was a sign that the Sun's magnetic field was active and approaching solar maximum.