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The Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (or IRIS) is a space probe to observe the Sun. It is a NASA Small Explorer program mission to investigate the physical conditions of the solar limb, particularly the chromosphere of the Sun. Lockheed Martin Solar and Astrophysics Laboratory (LMSAL) integrated the observatory. The observatory consists of a spacecraft and spectrometer that LMSAL built, and a telescope provided by the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. Now that it is in orbit it is being operated by Lockheed Martin Solar and Astrophysics Laboratory and NASA Ames Research Center. Its instrument is a high-frame-rate UV imaging spectrometer; one image a second, 0.3 arcsec spatial resolution, and sub-angstrom spectral resolution. NASA announced on June 19, 2009 that IRIS was selected from six small explorer mission candidates for further study, along with the Gravity and Extreme Magnetism (GEMS) space observatory.

The spacecraft arrived at Vandenberg AFB, Calif. on April 16, 2013 and was successfully launched on June 27, 2013 on a Pegasus-XL rocket. IRIS achieved first light on July 17, 2013. NASA noted, “IRIS\’s first images showed a multitude of thin, fibril-like structures that have never been seen before, revealing enormous contrasts in density and temperature occur throughout this region even between neighboring loops that are only a few hundred miles apart.”

Credit: NASA

Source: Wikipedia