Sun  ID: 11448

Into The Fire

On June 27, 2013, NASA's Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph, or IRIS, launched into space to study the mysterious lowest layers of the sun’s atmosphere. These layers make up what's called the interface region, an area where solar material is constantly writhing and exploding. The spacecraft is designed to take high-resolution images of the interface region in unprecedented detail. Such images will help scientists see how energy traveling through the region heats the sun's upper atmosphere to temperatures a thousand times hotter than the surface. Initial observations show the region is much more violent than previously understood, and contains a multitude of thin, fibril-like structures that have never before been seen. Watch the video for close-up views of the sun captured by IRIS.
 

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NASA.gov


Story Credits

Lead Visualizer/Animator:
Tom Bridgman (Global Science and Technology, Inc.)

Producer:
Genna Duberstein (USRA)

Lead Scientists:
Alan Title (LMSAL)
Bart De Pontieu (Lockheed Martin Solar and Astrophysics Lab)
Gary Kushner (LMSAL)
Adrian Daw (NASA/GSFC)

Lead Writer:
Karen Fox (ADNET Systems, Inc.)

Please give credit for this item to:
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
Cover image courtesy of NASA/IRIS
Video courtesy of NASA/GSFC/LMSAL/IRIS
Sun images courtesy of NASA/SDO/IRIS
Spacecraft image courtesy of Lockheed Martin

Short URL to share this page:
https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/11448

Keywords:
SVS >> App
NASA Science >> Sun