A stunning video of plasma rain on the surface of the sun shared by NASA is sure to take your breath away. The video has been captured by premiere US space agency NASA’s Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS), which is its solar observation satellite.
The beginning of this video shows a mid-level solar flare that is a sudden flash of bright light on the horizon of the sun.
Solar flares are powerful explosions of radiation that release a large amount of magnetic energy with each explosion, which heats the sun’s atmosphere and sends out energized particles into space.
The aim of IRIS is to provide aid to the NASA scientists in letting them know about the sun. To note, sun is a constantly changing body and NASA'S Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph helps in reaching into the depths of why and how it does what it does.
This 9-second video released by NASA shows solar material cascading down on the surface of sun in great loops also known as post-flare loops or coronal rain.
According to NASA reports, this material falling down is plasma, a gas in which positively and negatively charged particles have separated, forming a superhot mix that follows paths guided by complex magnetic forces in the sun's atmosphere.
After it falls down, the cooling starts – from millions down to a few tens of thousands of kelvins.
NASA has also discussed about the presence of bright pixels in the video, mentioning that they aren’t caused by the solar flare, but takes place when high-energy particles attack IRIS’s charge-coupled device camera.
