On June 28, 2013, a Pegasus rocket launched
NASA's Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph, or IRIS, spacecraft.
It was dropped from an L-1011 aircraft over the Pacific Ocean off the coast of
Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.
The Pegasus rocket engine fired, boosting the satellite on a mission to study the sun.
The IRIS mission is designed to help scientists understand the sun's atmosphere by
observing how solar material moves, gathers energy and heats up as it travels through
a little- understood area in the sun's l
lower atmosphere called the interface region.
During its first year in space, IRIS found more turbulence in the sun's atmosphere and more
complexity than expected.
Astronomers are also are learning how the sun creates giant
explosions, such as solar flares and coronal mass ejections.
These discharges impact the near-Earth space environment and can create changes in the
climate on Earth. That's why it's so important
to better understand the sun as it impacts
life on Earth every day.