A decade of sun
As of June 2020, NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory — SDO — has now been watching the Sun non-stop for over a full decade. From its orbit in space around the Earth, SDO has gathered 425 million high-resolution images of the Sun, amassing 20 million gigabytes of data over the past 10 years. This information has enabled countless new discoveries about the workings of our closest star and how it influences the solar system.
With a triad of instruments, SDO captures an image of the Sun every 0.75 seconds. The Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) instrument alone captures images every 12 seconds at 10 different wavelengths of light. This 10-year time lapse showcases photos taken at a wavelength of 17.1 nanometers, which is an extreme ultraviolet wavelength that shows the Sun’s outermost atmospheric layer — the corona. Compiling one photo every hour, the movie condenses a decade of the Sun into 61 minutes. The video shows the rise and fall in activity that occurs as part of the Sun’s 11-year solar cycle and notable events, like transiting planets and eruptions. The custom music, titled “Solar Observer,” was composed by musician Lars Leonhard (https://www.lars-leonhard.de/).
While SDO has kept an unblinking eye pointed towards the Sun, there have been a few moments it missed. The dark frames in the video are caused by Earth or the Moon eclipsing SDO as they pass between the spacecraft and the Sun. A longer blackout in 2016 was caused by a temporary issue with the AIA instrument that was successfully resolved after a week. The images where the Sun is off-center were observed when SDO was calibrating its instruments.
SDO and other NASA missions will continue to watch our Sun in the years to come, providing further insights about our place in space and information to keep our astronauts and assets safe.
Some noteworthy events appear briefly in this time lapse. Use the time links below to jump to each event, or follow the links to more detailed views.
-
24:39
Stephen Gardner
6 hours ago🔥Jon Stewart provokes EXPLOSIVE REACTION as Trump CROWD GOES CRAZY!
58.6K310 -
5:01:24
SNEAKO
12 hours agoSNEAKO X AKHI AYMAN X MO DEEN
107K58 -
18:40
Scammer Payback
4 days agoUNLEASHING SCAMMER RAGE!
33.9K12 -
1:05:22
The Why Files
3 days agoAnnunaki | Gods from Planet Nibiru and the Makers of Man
40.8K83 -
23:26
Bright Insight
15 hours agoThe Gobekli Tepe “Situation” is WORSE Than I Thought
83.3K274 -
22:31
MYLUNCHBREAK CHANNEL PAGE
1 day agoVirginia History in the Making?
91.3K44 -
3:18:05
Jewels Jones Live ®
1 day agoDNC SEWAGE SHOW | A Political Rendezvous - Ep. 89
84.8K81 -
1:09:16
I_Came_With_Fire_Podcast
1 day ago"Why Voting Matters: Free Speech, America First, & Strong Foreign Policy" with Baker Leavitt
79.8K42 -
2:09:45
LFA TV
19 hours agoSubverting the West - 'Dirty Tricks' of the Chinese Communist Party 2 | WHISTLEBLOWERS with AVA CHEN 8/24/24
107K44 -
18:51
Tundra Tactical
1 day agoVeteran ROASTS your favorite firearms (and your generation)!
107K40