New NASA Telescope Offers a First Glimpse of the Sun’s Mysterious Atmosphere [Watch], NASA
“NASA’s Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS) spacecraft has captured its first observations of a region of the sun that is now possible to observe in detail: the lowest layers of the sun’s atmosphere.
The first images from IRIS show the solar interface region in unprecedented detail. They reveal dynamic magnetic structures and flows of material in the sun’s atmosphere and hint at tremendous amounts of energy transfer through this little-understood region. These features may help power the sun’s dynamic million-degree atmosphere and drive the solar wind that streams out to fill the entire solar system.
“With this grand opening of the telescope door and first observations from IRIS we’ve opened a new window into the energetics of the sun’s atmosphere,” said John Grunsfeld, associate administrator of the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “The mission is a great example of a successful partnership for science between government, industry, academia, and international institutions. We look forward to the new insights IRIS will provide.”