IRIS

Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph

active Mission

IRIS observes how solar material moves, gathers energy, and heats up as it travels through a little-understood region in the Sun's lower atmosphere.

Type

Orbiter

Launch

June 28, 2013

Target

Sun-Earth Interaction

Objective

Observe solar material

IRIS Mission Status

Some data from NASA’s IRIS mission is temporarily unavailable because of flooding in the building that houses the mission's data center at Stanford University. The spacecraft remains healthy and is otherwise operating normally.

Learn more about this update.

Interface Region Imaging Spectograph (IRIS) with solar wings deployed in B/159.

Latest News

Explore All IRIS (Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph) Stories

NASA Observations Find What Helps Heat Roots of ‘Moss’ on Sun

The left image shows thin swirls of bright golden material flowing off the Sun's surface. The outline of a white box is over a speckled area of the surface, in gray and bright gold. On the right, is that area in different wavelengths. The image is purple, black, red, orange, and right yellow. In the highlighted area, the speckles are a very bright yellow with some cooler purple areas.

Observations Around Solar System With Parker Solar Probe’s 7th Solar Encounter

NASA’s IRIS Spots Nanojets: Shining Light On Heating the Solar Corona

Article4 years ago

Solar Tadpole-Like Jets Seen With NASA’S IRIS Add New Clue to Age-Old Mystery

Article6 years ago

Marking a Milestone: Launch Services Program Celebrates 20th Anniversary

Article6 years ago

Keep Exploring

Discover More Topics From NASA

James Webb Space Telescope

The image is divided horizontally by an undulating line between a cloudscape forming a nebula along the bottom portion and a comparatively clear upper portion. Speckled across both portions is a starfield, showing innumerable stars of many sizes. The smallest of these are small, distant, and faint points of light. The largest of these appear larger, closer, brighter, and more fully resolved with 8-point diffraction spikes. The upper portion of the image is blueish, and has wispy translucent cloud-like streaks rising from the nebula below. The orangish cloudy formation in the bottom half varies in density and ranges from translucent to opaque. The stars vary in color, the majority of which have a blue or orange hue. The cloud-like structure of the nebula contains ridges, peaks, and valleys – an appearance very similar to a mountain range. Three long diffraction spikes from the top right edge of the image suggest the presence of a large star just out of view.

Perseverance Rover

Parker Solar Probe

Juno