Astronomers using NASA’s HERSCHEL (Helium Resonance Scattering in the Corona and Heliosphere) sounding rocket have obtained global images of the helium and hydrogen emission in the solar corona, the outermost part of the Sun’s atmosphere. The HERSCHEL observations show that the helium abundance is shaped according to the structure of the large-scale coronal magnetic field and that helium is almost completely absent in the equatorial regions during...