Browse Archive

  • Hinode views the lower regions of the sun’s atmosphere, the interface region, which a new mission called the Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph will study in exquisite detail.

    NASA's IRIS Mission to Launch in June

    06.04.13 - Understanding how energy travels through the lowest layers of the sun's atmosphere is the goal of NASA's Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph scheduled to launch on June 26, 2013.

  • This image from JAXA’s Hinode mission shows the lower regions of the sun’s atmosphere, the interface region, which a new mission called the Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph, or IRIS, will study in exquisite detail.

    IRIS Mission Readies For a New Challenge

    05.29.13 - In late June 2013, NASA will launch a new set of eyes to offer the most detailed look ever of the sun's lower atmosphere, known as the interface region.

  • Screen capture from IRIS mission trailer video showing an active solar surface.

    IRIS Mission Readies For a New Challenge

    05.20.13 - NASA is getting ready to launch a new mission to observe a mysterious region of the solar atmosphere that may be crucial to understanding what powers space weather.

  • Artist's concept of the IRIS satellite in orbit.

    IRIS Q&A with Robert Carvalho

    04.30.13 - Robert Carvalho is one of two flight controllers for the IRIS mission, and is helping design, develop and integrate flight controller software tools.

  • Workers unload NASA's IRIS spacecraft from a truck at the processing facility at Vandenberg where the spacecraft will be readied for launch aboard an Orbital Sciences Pegasus XL rocket

    Solar Satellite Arrives at Vandenberg AFB for Launch

    04.17.13 - IRIS spacecraft arrives at VAFB for final preparations for a NET May 28 launch aboard a Pegasus rocket.

  • The fully integrated spacecraft and science instrument for IRIS mission is seen in a clean room.

    IRIS Spacecraft Is Fully Integrated

    01.18.13 - NASA's next Small Explorer mission, the Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS), which will study the little-understood lower levels of the sun's atmosphere has been fully integrated and final testing is underway.

  • Three students set up equipment on an outdoor deck

    Student Teams Win Space Grant Competition

    06.13.12 - Teams from Maryland, California and Montana universities won top prizes at the second annual National Student Solar Spectrograph Competition.

  • Left: An image of a magnetic loop complex as captured on July 22, 2011 by SDO. Right: This is the same area as captured by the NST.

    Spotting Ultrafine Loops in the Sun's Corona

    06.12.12 - Scientists have for the first time observed especially narrow loops of solar material scattered on the sun's surface. These ultrafine loops may help with determining how temperatures rise throughout the corona.