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.
Sympathetic Eruption at the Solar Limb
Credit: IRIS, LMSAL/NASA, Jake Parker
While tracking active region (AR) 12779 a nearby AR, 12778, which was out of the field of view behind the limb, produced a C class flare. The residual flaring plasma is visible at the very beginning of the movie. This reorientation of the nearby magnetic field caused AR 12779 to go unstable as well and produce a small eruption, visible at the end of the movie.