“The telescope opened to view the mysterious lowest layers of the sun’s atmosphere, and the results…

“The telescope opened to view the mysterious lowest layers of the sun’s atmosphere, and the results are nothing short of amazing”

NASA’S new telescope, the Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph, or IRIS, is officially in business and it’s finding “a multitude of thin, fibril-like structures that have never been seen before” on what’s known as the “interface region” of the sun.

[IRIS is] revealing enormous contrasts in density and temperature occur throughout this region even between neighboring loops that are only a few hundred miles apart. The images also show spots that rapidly brighten and dim, which provide clues to how energy is transported and absorbed throughout the region.

The IRIS images of fine structure in the interface region will help scientists track how magnetic energy contributes to heating in the sun’s atmosphere. Scientists need to observe the region in exquisite detail, because the energy flowing through it powers the upper layer of the sun’s atmosphere, the corona, to temperatures greater than 1 million kelvins (about 1.8 million F), almost a thousand times hotter than the sun’s surface itself.

1 million kelvins! Also, here’s another incredible image of IRIS’s findings. And also, whoever is writing NASA’s press releases, you are awesome, and I salute you for making your work as interesting as it should be.

[NASA] Photo credit NASA/SDO/IRIS