The US space agency launched a satellite to unlock the secrets of the Sun’s lower atmosphere.
NASA Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph — dubbed IRIS — was launched at 0227 GMT aboard an Orbital Sciences Pegasus XL rocket off the California coast.
The goal of the $182 million mission — to last at least two years — is to observe the movement of solar material.
In particular it wants to learn how it gathers energy and heats up as it makes its way through a mysterious region in the sun’s lower atmosphere.
This region between the sun’s photosphere and corona powers is where most of the sun’s ultraviolet emission is generated, which impact the near-Earth space environment and Earth’s climate, according to NASA.
IRIS will take high resolution photos of this region at intervals of several seconds.
Engineers will test IRIS for about a month before activating it to start its observations.
