A coronal mass ejection, or CME, surged off the side of the Sun on May 9, 2014, and NASAs newest solar observatory caught it in extraordinary detail. This was the first CME observed by the Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph, or IRIS, which launched in June 2013 to peer into the lowest levels of the suns atmosphere with better resolution than ever before. Watch the movie to see how a curtain of solar material erupts outward at speeds of 1.5 million miles per hour. IRIS must commit to pointing at certain areas of the sun at least a day in advance, so catching a CME in the act involves some educated guesses and a little bit of luck. We focus in on active regions to try to see a flare or a CME, said Bart De Pontieu, the IRIS science lead at Lockheed Martin Solar & Astrophysics Laboratory in Palo Alto, California. And then we wait and hope that well catch something. This is the first clear CME for IRIS so the team is very excited. The IRIS imagery focuses in on material of 30,000 Kelvin at the base, or foot points, of the CME. The line moving across the middle of the movie is the entrance slit for IRISs spectrograph, an instrument that can split light into its many wavelengths - a technique that ultimately allows scientists to measure temperature, velocity and density of the solar material behind the slit. The field of view for this imagery is about five Earths wide and about seven and a half Earths tall. The IRIS Observatory was designed by and the mission is managed by Lockheed Martin Solar & Astrophysics Laboratory. NASAs Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California, provides mission operations and ground data systems. NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, manages the Explorers Program for NASAs Science Mission Directorate in Washington, D.C. Find the article here: nasa.gov/content/goddard/a-first-for-nasas-iris-observing-a-gigantic-eruption-of-solar-material/#.U4iTdihG1Mg Credit: NASA IRIS
Posted on: Fri, 30 May 2014 14:27:53 +0000
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