NASA releases 10-year time-lapse of the Sun

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) released a 10-year time-lapse of the Sun on June 24. It has been prepared from the data collected by the Solar Dynamic Observatory (SDO), which has been watching the Sun non-stop for over a full decade.

According to NASA, the SDO captures an image of the Sun every 0.75 seconds, and it has collected 20 million gigabytes of data, comprising 425 million high-resolution images.

“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,” NASA wrote in its statement released with the video.

"From countless giant plasma outbursts from the solar surface, plasma tornadoes and waves to comets flying by the sun, and death and birth of a solar cycle, all the information collected over the past ten years by the SDO will enable countless new discoveries about the workings of our closest star and how it influences the solar system," said the space agency.

Launched on February 11, 2010, the SDO took measurements of the Sun — from the interior to the atmosphere, magnetic field, and energy output. SDO’s images have also become iconic; if you’ve ever seen a close up of activity on the Sun, it was likely from an SDO image, NASA wrote in another statement.

The time-lapse video at 17.1 nanometers shows the rise and fall of a periodic 11-year solar cycle and notable events, like transiting planets and solar eruptions.

The custom music in the video, titled “Solar Observer” was composed by musician Lars Leonhard.

The statement added that though the SDO kept an unblinking eye pointed toward the Sun, there were a few moments that 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,” NASA said.

NASA wrote that in the upcoming years, other missions like SDO will continue to watch the sun which will provide “further insights about our place in space and information to keep our astronauts and assets safe.”