At about 8 am (IST, Nasa’s latest sun observing satellite called Iris (Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph) was launched from the Vandenburg Air Force base in California in a two‐year mission to further unravel the mysteries of the sun. According to NASA, Iris is a small explorer mission which will investigate the sun’s lower atmosphere in unprecedented detail. Explaining the significance of the mission, Mr Dibyendu Nandi, astrophysicist and coordinator of the Center for Excellence in Space Sciences at IISER (Indian Institute of Science Education and Research) Kolkata said: “The space community lacked the sophisticated observational equipment necessary to study the crucial layer sandwiched between the solar surface and the corona known as the interface region.”

Source: Times of India

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