Premium Only Content
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.
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.
-
18:38
DeVory Darkins
18 hours ago $6.94 earnedTrump Makes HUGE Announcement that may spark GOP Battle
19.7K31 -
2:13:05
The Nerd Realm
3 hours ago $1.26 earnedNew Years Eve! Fortnite Hunters w/ YOU! Creator Code: NERDREALM
14.7K2 -
LIVE
FusedAegisTV
19 hours agoNYE Eve! - 2025 Incoming 🎉 - 12hr Variety Stream!
127 watching -
1:18:52
Awaken With JP
6 hours agoSomehow The World DIDN’T End This Year! - LIES Ep 72
52.5K27 -
1:19:34
Michael Franzese
4 hours agoWhat 2024 Taught Us About the Future?
60K16 -
1:48:09
The Quartering
5 hours agoBird Flu PANIC, Sam Hyde DESTROYS Elon Musk & Patrick Bet David & Woke Witcher?
78.6K48 -
4:47
SLS - Street League Skateboarding
3 days agoLiz Akama’s 2nd Place Finish at SLS Tokyo 2024 | Best Tricks
23.1K3 -
LIVE
LumpyPotatoX2
4 hours agoHappy New Year Rumble ! - #RumbleGaming
89 watching -
10:37
One Bite Pizza Reviews
23 hours agoBest of Barstool Pizza Reviews 2024
45.7K29 -
2:37
Tate Speech by Andrew Tate
6 hours ago2025 WILL BE YOUR YEAR
80.2K31