Huge coronal mass ejection on Sun observed through IRIS

June 1, 2014

NASA’s Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph captured rare footage of a huge Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs) erupting from the Sun. The Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS) was launched in June 2013 to observe how solar material moves, gathers energy, and heats up as it travels through a little-explored region in the Sun’s lower atmosphere.
Studying how material and energy move through this region is a vital part of understanding the dynamics of the Sun. The latest footage can help explain what causes the ejection of solar material – from the steady stream of the solar wind to larger, explosive eruptions such as CMEs.
CMEs, also known as solar storms or space storms, are colossal clouds of solar plasma with magnetic field lines that eject from the Sun during solar flares and filament eruptions. CMEs disrupt the flow of the solar wind and produce disturbances that hit the Earth with sometimes catastrophic consequences.

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