IRIS Movie of the Day
At least once a week a movie of the Sun taken by NASA's Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS) is posted by one of the scientists operating the instrument.
A Prominence Bubble
Credit: IRIS, LMSAL/NASA, Patricia Jibben
This high resolution movie of a solar prominence highlights a phenomena called prominence bubbles. In regions where the Sun's magnetic field reverses sign, puffs of chromospheric material can be suspended above the Sun's surface. Sometimes, strong magnetic fields containing hot gas can occur under these puffs, forming what looks like a dome-shaped void. This void, called a magnetic bubble, can push up into the prominence material forming a bright ridge as seen in this movie. Prominence bubbles were discovered over 40 years ago but were difficult to study as high resolution data is needed. IRIS obtained high resolution spectra of this magnetic bubble on 8 April 2016.