NASA researchers spotted an extremely large solar flare.
NASA's Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS) picked up the strongest solar flare seen since it was installed in the summer of 2013, a NASA news release reported.
Solar flares are "bursts of x-rays and light that stream out into space," the news release reported. Scientists are not sure exactly what causes the phenomenon. IRIS provides an inside look into the Sun; it peers into the layer below the surface, called the "chromosphere."
Researchers noticed a particularly magnetically active region of the Sun in late January. The team focused IRIS in on the region to see how the solar material behaved under those conditions.
On January 28 at 2:40 p.m. IRIS spotted a moderate flare in the area; the flare was labeled M-class, which is the second strongest classification after X-class.
The chromosphere (which IRIS studies) is "key to regulating the flow of energy and material as they travel from the sun's surface out into space," the news release reported. Energy heats the upper atmosphere (corona) as it travels which can spur solar events such as the giant flare.
IRIS employs an instrument called a spectrograph which can separate captured light into individual wavelengths; this allows it to pinpoint the densities, velocities, and temperatures of the wavelengths.
"The spectrograph on IRIS was pointed right into the heart of this flare when it reached its peak, and so the data obtained can help determine how different temperatures of material flow, giving scientists more insight into how flares work," the news release reported.
The IRIS mission works to gain insight into the dynamics of the Sun by looking at how material and energy move thought the Sun's lower atmosphere
"IRIS also draws on state of the art computer modeling sophisticated enough to deal with the complexity of this area. In combination, IRIS's resolution, wide temperature coverage and computer modeling will enable scientists to map plumes of solar material as they move throughout the region and to pinpoint where in their travels they gain energy and heat," the NASA website stated.
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