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.
Dynamic loops at limb of the Sun
Credit: IRIS, LMSAL/NASA, Don Schmit
Strong magnetic regions on the Sun known as active regions are the source of many dynamic events like the ones shown in this movie. In this active region, there is plasma (charged gas) being accelerated upward, counter to gravity. There is also plasma raining down. This mixture of processes is common in the complex environments of the solar atmosphere.