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.
2022 New Year's Eve Large Prominence Eruption
Credit: IRIS, LMSAL/NASA, Wei Liu
A large polar crown prominence eruption at SW limb took place over multiple IRIS orbits with IRIS observation coverage started at about 4:00 UT on 2021-Dec-31 (New Years Eve :-) The prominence experienced a gradual/slow liftoff over many hours. This movie shows the very late stage of this eruption, during which the majority of the material has already erupted. In the very end, some material that failed to escape the Sun's gravitational pull returned to the Sun and fell as coronal rain. Note the curved trajectory of this falling material that indicates the magnetic field lines that the partially ionized prominence material is following.