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.
Spectacular Prominence Eruption at Solar Limb
Credit: IRIS, LMSAL/NASA, Chunming Zhu
On February 28, 2023, a spectacular prominence eruption was captured by IRIS. Prominences are relatively dense and cool materials suspended in the solar atmosphere. During this observation, the prominence above the northeastern limb rises slowly at the beginning, followed by sudden brightening and acceleration. It appears to interact with other materials above it, which also brightens, meanwhile winds around the prominence. The spectroscopic and slit-jaw imaging from IRIS will help us understand the structure and motion of the materials during the prominence eruptions.