NASA's IRIS Spacecraft has captured its first observations of the Sun's mysterious interface region, making it possible now to study the star's lowest layers of atmosphere.
On June 26, NASA announced the launch of The Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS) with an aim to obtain the most detailed look ever at the sun's lower atmosphere. In a press statement released July 25, the space agency announced that the spacecraft has successfully captured its first observations, making it possible to conduct a detailed study on the lowest layers of the sun's atmosphere.
"With this grand opening of the telescope door and first observations from IRIS we've opened a new window into the energetics of the sun's atmosphere," said John Grunsfeld, associate administrator of the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington in the statement. "The mission is a great example of a successful partnership for science between government, industry, academia, and international institutions. We look forward to the new insights IRIS will provide."
One of IRIS's main features is to capture images that allow scientists to observe the interface region in exquisite detail, including the energy flowing through it powers the upper layer of the sun's atmosphere, the corona, to temperatures greater than 1.8 million degrees Fahrenheit.
In the first images obtained by IRIS, scientists were able to detect a multitude of thin, fiber-like structures that have never been seen before. The images also revealed enormous contrasts in density and temperature throughout this region, even between neighboring loops only a few hundred miles apart. Scientists were even able to detect spots that rapidly brighten and dim, which provide clues to how energy is transported and absorbed throughout the region.
"The quality of the images and spectra we are receiving from IRIS is amazing -- this is just what we were hoping for," said Alan Title, IRIS principal investigator at Lockheed Martin in Palo Alto, Calif. "There is much work ahead to understand what we're seeing, but the quality of the data will enable us to do that."
Over the next few weeks, scientists from NASA will extensively study the images captured by IRIS.
