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Above Credit: NASA Goddard
By Iris
IRIS is a small explorer carrying a spectrograph meant to observe the photosphere (the layer of gas directly above the sun’s surface), the chromosphere (a lower layer of the sun’s atmosphere), and the transition region (where the chromosphere transitions into the corona, (the layer of atmosphere after the chromosphere) of the sun to help scientists piece together the inner workings of our star. For example, why does the atmosphere of the sun get hotter as it gets further away? What causes solar wind and coronal mass ejections (CME)? The IRIS mission will help answer these questions.
One of IRIS’s mission goals is to figure out how heat, energy and matter move through the sun’s lower atmosphere. The two regions closest to the center of the Sun's surface are called the chromosphere and the transition region. These regions are violently churning as hot and cooler (but still hot) plasma mixes in the the Sun's lower atmosphere.
IRIS uses a spectrograph and an ultraviolet telescope to record the specific temperature of matter in the sun’s lower atmosphere. These instruments will take images about every few seconds. This, combined with 3-D computer modeling, will be used to deduce how solar material moves at different temperatures in the chromosphere and transition region.
IRIS telescope structure. Credits: NASA/LMSAL
Iris (the person, not the probe) has an activity you can do at home to demonstrate the currents of plasma in the Sun. You will need 2 colors of food coloring (red and blue work best, but any colors will work), a glass baking dish or bowl, and water from the tap. We will use water that is as hot as you can get it from the tap and also as cold as you can get it from the tap.
Iris mission science video.mp4
The Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope's first published image of the sun is the highest-resolution image of our star to date. (Image credit: NSO/NSF/AURA)
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