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.
Unraveling Magnetic Fields as a Result of a Small Flare
Credit: IRIS, LMSAL/NASA, Roy Smart
Flares are thought to be the cataclysmic result of surplus magnetic energy stored in the solar atmosphere. This example demonstrates how the violent explosion associated with the flare is accompanied by a large-scale untwisting of the magnetic field.