Those lucky enough to observe the solar eclipse note that when the eclipse is complete, the ‘corona’ of the sun is visible. This is a layer of glowing plasma surrounding the sun which normally due to the brightness of the sun is not visible. However when the sun is covered in a solar eclipse it is visible as an aura.

The word corona comes from the Latin word crown but these days it has a more ominous ring to it, the coronavirus or the SARS-CoV-2, a zoonotic RNA virus causing COVID-19 infection. Zoonotic because it jumped from animals to humans, RNA because it has a RNA core and it causes the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) also called coronavirus disease 2019 or COVID-19.

The name refers to the characteristic appearance of virus under electron microscopy, a fringe of surface projections creating an image reminiscent of the solar corona. This appearance is created by the viral spike peplomers, which are proteins on the surface of the virus. These groups of viruses where informally given this name by June Almeida and David Tyrrell and appeared in an article in Nature magazine in 1968.