NASA captures rare footage of solar flare erupting from sun
This is rare footage of a solar flare erupting from the sun. NASA captured the high definition images with its new observation satellite, called IRIS.
The eruption, also known as a coronal mass ejection, is happening at 1.5 million miles per hour and the field of view seen here stretches 5 Earths wide and about seven and a half Earths tall.
The satellite was launched last year to observe the lowest levels of the sun's atmosphere with the best resolution the organization has ever seen. Not too shabby.
It caught the eruption on May 9th and it wasn't easy.
To capture the phenomenon, NASA had to point IRIS at the sun a day ahead of time because catching the explosion involves a lot of guessing.
An IRIS specialist explains, "We focus in on active regions to try to see a flare or a CME. And then we wait and hope that we will catch something."
Basically, rocket science...
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