<p>To commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO), NASA has released a timelapse of the observatory's recording of the Sun, the resident star of the solar system where Earth resides, showcasing a very tiny slice of its life.</p>.<p>The 48-minute video shows about 22 years of the Sun, starting from January 1998 and ending on January 2020.</p>.<p>"This view of the Sun has been processed by scientists at the Naval Research Lab in Washington, DC, which manages SOHO's LASCO instrument, to merge views from two of LASCO’s coronagraphs: C2, which images closer to the Sun’s surface but has a smaller field of view, and C3, which has a wider field of view," NASA said.</p>.<p>"Throughout the video, the Sun releases bursts of material called coronal mass ejections: fast-moving clouds of solar material that can trigger space weather effects on Earth — like auroras, communications problems, and even power outages — and for spacecraft in their path. These storms are more frequent near solar maximum, the period approximately every 11 years when the Sun’s activity is at a high point," the space agency said.</p>.<p>"Beyond the day-to-day monitoring of space weather, SOHO has been able to provide insight about our dynamic Sun on longer timescales as well. The star flips magnetic polarity every 22 years. It also ramps up and down in activity every 11 years," NASA said.</p>.<p>“Having a coronagraph observing all around the Sun helped us to see CMEs coming toward us,” said Terry Kucera, astrophysicist in NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center's Solar Physics Laboratory in Greenbelt, Maryland. “That’s been really critical in understanding space weather and allowing scientists to study how CMEs affect us here on Earth," Kucera added.</p>.<p>The Sun, the main-sequence star at the centre of the solar system, is approximately 4.5 billion years old, and is expected to burn for around another 5 billion years.</p>.<p>The SOHO is a joint mission of the European Space Agency and NASA. Launched in 1995, the mission has kept a constant eye on the Sun.</p>
<p>To commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO), NASA has released a timelapse of the observatory's recording of the Sun, the resident star of the solar system where Earth resides, showcasing a very tiny slice of its life.</p>.<p>The 48-minute video shows about 22 years of the Sun, starting from January 1998 and ending on January 2020.</p>.<p>"This view of the Sun has been processed by scientists at the Naval Research Lab in Washington, DC, which manages SOHO's LASCO instrument, to merge views from two of LASCO’s coronagraphs: C2, which images closer to the Sun’s surface but has a smaller field of view, and C3, which has a wider field of view," NASA said.</p>.<p>"Throughout the video, the Sun releases bursts of material called coronal mass ejections: fast-moving clouds of solar material that can trigger space weather effects on Earth — like auroras, communications problems, and even power outages — and for spacecraft in their path. These storms are more frequent near solar maximum, the period approximately every 11 years when the Sun’s activity is at a high point," the space agency said.</p>.<p>"Beyond the day-to-day monitoring of space weather, SOHO has been able to provide insight about our dynamic Sun on longer timescales as well. The star flips magnetic polarity every 22 years. It also ramps up and down in activity every 11 years," NASA said.</p>.<p>“Having a coronagraph observing all around the Sun helped us to see CMEs coming toward us,” said Terry Kucera, astrophysicist in NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center's Solar Physics Laboratory in Greenbelt, Maryland. “That’s been really critical in understanding space weather and allowing scientists to study how CMEs affect us here on Earth," Kucera added.</p>.<p>The Sun, the main-sequence star at the centre of the solar system, is approximately 4.5 billion years old, and is expected to burn for around another 5 billion years.</p>.<p>The SOHO is a joint mission of the European Space Agency and NASA. Launched in 1995, the mission has kept a constant eye on the Sun.</p>
