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.
Coronal rain from high in the solar atmosphere
Credit: IRIS, LMSAL/NASA, Peter Levens
Coronal rain forms when cool plasma condenses out of the hot, tenuous solar atmosphere and flows downwards, following the magnetic field towards the surface. This movie shows a striking loop of plasma, and flows from the top of the loop, on the right, down the legs of the loop and towards the Sun, which is visible on the left of the movie. Coronal rain usually forms above active regions, and this case is no exception, but the active region is not visible as it passed over the solar horizon.