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.
On the Importance of Bright Points
Credit: IRIS, LMSAL/NASA, Lucas Guliano
Active Regions (ARs) are the heliophysicist's bread and butter when it comes to choosing solar observations. When an energetic region with a significant amount of activity emerges, it can grow large enough to be assigned a number and officially classified as an AR. These regions are much more likely to produce the most exciting and dynamic solar events such as flares and CMEs. However, there are also energetic regions that emerge that do not grow sufficiently large to be classified as active regions; even though they are still regions of increased activity. These areas on the Sun are typically referred to as bright points. Although they are not quite as interesting or as intense as the more developed ARs, they can still provide important insight into the Sun and create dynamic events. The above video shows some small activity occurring in a bright point over the course of a few days.