Premium Only Content

A Decade of Sun
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 pcalibrating 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. 6:20 June 7, 2011-
-
16:58
marcushouse
14 hours ago $3.11 earnedSpaceX Starship Flight 10: What Really Happened! 🚀
37.6K13 -
3:47
Blackstone Griddles
14 hours agoCampground Meal Planning on the Blackstone Camping Griddle
10K1 -
28:13
Her Patriot Voice
14 hours ago $1.17 earnedIs Flag Burning Free Speech?
11K15 -
17:51
TheRoyaltyAutoService
16 hours ago $0.54 earnedIs Flat Rate Ruining The Auto Repair Industry?!
12.3K6 -
2:02:05
BEK TV
1 day agoTrent Loos in the Morning - 8/28/2025
12.8K -
26:00
DeVory Darkins
1 day ago $12.23 earnedDemocrat Mayor HUMILIATES himself during painful interview as Trump makes SHOCKING Announcement
44.4K100 -
22:14
Ohio State Football and Recruiting at Buckeye Huddle
1 day agoOhio State Football: Everything Steve Sarkisian Said About the Buckeyes This Week
29.2K -
1:19:55
TruthStream with Joe and Scott
1 day agoLisa, Michelle and Carole join Joe for Healing and Inspiration. Next healing will be on Aug 28th at Noon and 4pm eastern https://www.balancingbodyandsoul.com/?ref=TRUTHSTREAMSHOW
19.8K1 -
10:32
Nikko Ortiz
18 hours agoFunniest Fails Of The Month
42.3K5 -
28:59
The Jack Brewer Show
15 hours agoThe Jack Brewer Show S1 EP5 Charles Duke Tanner on Redemption, Fatherhood & Second Chances #podcast
9.47K1