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.
A Great Ring of Fire
Credit: IRIS, LMSAL/NASA, Chad Madsen, SAO
This video features an active region jet, a phenomenon wherein heated material is funneled into a narrow stream and ejected from the Sun at great speed. Jets tend to be accompanied by a bright footprint at its base. Typically, this footprint has a jagged and boxy shape, but this particular jet features a peculiarly circular footprint that appears to burn into the Sun like a great ring of flames.