NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory has shared an astonishing time-lapse of the Sun that was shot over the course of ten years! What you’re about to watch are 425 million high-resolution images that have been gathered from over a decade of observation from its orbit in space.
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/).
The video is over an hour long. I know some of you may not sit and watch it for that long, but if you do you’ll see some cool big solar flares and sunspots. At around the 12:23 mark, you can see Venus travel in front of the sun. I love this stuff and if you do too then you’re sure to enjoy this.