The first results from a new NASA sun-studying spacecraft are in, and they reveal a complex and intriguing picture of Earth's star. NASA's Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph probe (IRIS) has observed 'bombs' of plasma on the sun, nanoflares that rapidly accelerate particles, and powerful jets that may drive the solar wind, among other phenomena, five new studies report. While spacecraft can enter planetary atmospheres, they cannot fly through the outer atmosphere of the sun, where temperatures reach 3.5 million degrees Fahrenheit (2 million degrees Celsius). Probes like IRIS instead must study the star from a safe distance. Unlike previous instruments, IRIS can take far...
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