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.
Flare! But what about eruption?
Credit: IRIS, LMSAL/NASA, Juraj Lorincik
On July 10 2024, the active region NOAA 13738 produced an M-class flare captured by IRIS. At first glance, the data might suggest that the flare was accompanied by a solar eruption. Detailed, zoomed-in view provided by IRIS however reveals that the seemingly erupting material falls back to the surface, confined by the gravity of the Sun. This is confirmed by imaging and coronagraphic data with a larger field-of-view, which do not show any evidence of material being ejected into the interplanetary space. In the following days, this active region continued to be in focus of numerous ground-based and space-borne telescopes, as a part of a campaign supporting the Sunrise III balloon mission operating from the stratosphere.