NASA's IRIS Snaps First Observation of Sun's Mysterious Interface Region

The latest solar observatory 'Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph' (IRIS) launched by NASA to hunt the hidden mysteries of the sun, has finally captured its first observation of the sun's unexplored region

NASA's 7 by 12 feet IRIS focused its lens at the Sun on July 17 and has for the first time captured the lowest layers of the sun's atmosphere in finer detail.

The images captured by IRIS show the dynamic magnetic structures and flow of materials in the solar atmosphere and indicate the huge amount of energy being transported  from this region.

"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 a press 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."

The first-of-its-kind images snapped by IRIS showed a multitude of thin, fiber-like structures and revealed a lot of contrast in density and the temperature throughout this region, even between neighbouring loops only a few hundred miles apart.  The images also show many flickering spots in the region, which could help with understanding of energy absorption and transportation in 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."

The small explorer mission 'IRIS',  launched by NASA on June 27, weighs less than 400 pounds and is designed to capture the interface regions clearly. IRIS's instrument is made of ultraviolet telescope and spectrograph.

The telescope can capture high resolution image and can resolve tiny features that are as small as 150 miles across.

On the other hand, spectrograph can analyze the sun's light by splitting it into many wavelengths and measuring how much of any given wavelength is present, NASA said. Analysis of the spectral lines can give scientists the data on velocity, temperature and density, which can further help them understand the movement of heat and energy around the sun.

The energy flowing through the interface region powers the corona (upper layer of sun's atmosphere) to a million Kelvin, a temperature that's higher than 1.8 million degrees Fahrenheit, reports Nature World News. Energy flow in this region drives the solar wind along with the UV radiation that affects Earth and other planets around the Sun, which is why the scientists wanted to analyze this region.

In the coming weeks, the scientists plan to inspect the images captured by NASA's IRIS in complete detail.