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 20,000,000 gigabytes of data over the past ten 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.
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.
-
16:09
Chicks in the Office
4 hours agoOur Top 12 Songs On Repeat This Week - Music You Can't Miss
18.3K16 -
LIVE
Gigi Young
1 day agoLecture: The Mystery of Death
836 watching -
1:01:15
The Dan Bongino Show
7 hours agoSUNDAY SPECIAL with Mike Benz, Scott Presler, Julie Kelly and Jim Verdi - 06/23/2024
107K268 -
31:41
Standpoint with Gabe Groisman
7 hours agoEp. 32. Libs of TikTok. Chaya Raichik
34K54 -
35:24
Squaring The Circle w/ Randall Carlson
1 day ago#009 Are Sea Levels REALLY Rising? Pt 2 - Squaring the Circle: A Randall Carlson Podcast
49.4K53 -
14:23
Freakin' Reviews
1 day agoPan Wars! $90 Caraway vs $8 Martha Stewart!
45.2K18 -
4:21
ParisDemers
1 day agoScientific Trick That Increases Your Testosterone 400% In 7 Days!
57.7K17 -
16:30
CarlCrusher
1 day agoPsychic Witches Perform Conjuring Seance at Skinwalker's Evil Twin Ranch near Area 51
53.1K13 -
6:39
Tactical Advisor
1 day agoNEW CMMG BR4 (FIRST LOOK)
56.5K19 -
10:23
America Uncovered
1 day agoThe IRS Has Gone On The Attack. And The Poor Still Suffer
54.8K29