NASA Releases 10-Year Time-Lapse Video Of The Sun Taken By Satellite

NASA has released a new time-lapse video showing images of the Sun taken by a solar satellite within a period of 10 years. The video shows the Sun’s various activities during the last decade.

The images of the Sun were captured by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), a mission that was officially launched by the agency on Feb. 11, 2010. It began to observe the Sun in June of the same year. The objective of the mission is to study the massive star using the SDO satellite’s various instruments equipped with different imaging capabilities.

After spending a decade observing the Sun, the SDO was able to collect 425 million high-resolution photos of the giant star, accounting for about 20 million gigabytes of data. NASA used these images to gather information about the Sun and its activities.

Through these images, NASA was able to create a time-lapse video showing the Sun’s activities during the last 10 years. The photos featured in the video were captured using the SDO’s Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) instrument, which is capable of capturing images every 12 seconds under 10 different light wavelengths.

Through the AIA instrument, NASA was able to show the outer layer of the Sun’s atmosphere, which is known as the corona.

Aside from the corona, other notable solar features and events can also be spotted in the video. Some of these include coronal loops, which are minor eruptions on the Sun’s surface that create looping structures made of plasma or ionized gas. Transiting planets that partially block the SDO’s view of the Sun can also be seen in the video.

“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,” NASA explained in a statement.

“Compiling one photo every hour, the movie condenses a decade of the Sun into 61 minutes,” the agency added. “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.”