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.
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8 Apr 2017
Plasma suspension above the solar limb
Credit: IRIS, LMSAL/NASA, Lakshmi Pradeep Chitta
Giant walls of plasma, prominences, are often seen suspended above the solar limb. The invisible magnetic field holds the structure stable against gravity, in some cases for several days. Disturbances in the magnetic field and instabilities will eventually lead the structures to erupt as spectacular coronal mass ejections. A stable prominent is seen in this movie.