A Decade of the Sun: Stunning Time-Lapse from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory

or over 10 years, SDO has been watching the Sun non-stop, gathering an astounding 425 million high-resolution images, totaling a staggering 20 million gigabytes of data. This incredible wealth of information has led to countless new discoveries about our closest star and its influence on the solar system.
With its triad of instruments, SDO captures an image of the Sun every 0.75 seconds, providing an unprecedented view of our dynamic star. The Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) instrument alone captures images every 12 seconds at 10 different wavelengths of light, including the extreme ultraviolet wavelength of 17.1 nanometers, which reveals the Sun's outermost atmospheric layer, the corona.
In this captivating time-lapse video, we condense a decade of the Sun's activity into 61 minutes. Watch as the Sun's activity rises and falls in sync with its 11-year solar cycle, and witness notable events such as transiting planets and eruptions. The custom music, titled "Solar Observer," composed by musician Lars Leonhard, adds a mesmerizing touch to the visual spectacle.
While SDO has diligently observed the Sun, there have been a few moments it missed. The dark frames in the video occur when Earth or the Moon eclipse SDO as they pass between the spacecraft and the Sun. Additionally, a longer blackout in 2016 was caused by a temporary issue with the AIA instrument, which was successfully resolved after a week. The off-center images were observed during instrument calibration.
SDO and other NASA missions will continue to monitor our Sun, providing further insights about our place in space and valuable information to ensure the safety of our astronauts and assets.
#NASA #SDO #Sun #TimeLapse #SolarActivity #Astronomy #SpaceExploration