133 Days on the Sun- The amazing cycle

This video documents the solar activity from August 12 to December 22, 2022, as observed by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO). SDO has been imaging the Sun in 4K x 4K resolution for almost 13 years from its orbit around Earth. This has led to numerous new discoveries about our nearest star and its impact on the solar system.

SDO captures an image of the Sun every 0.75 seconds using three instruments. The Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) instrument alone captures images every 12 seconds at 10 different wavelengths of light. This time-lapse video, which lasts for 133 days, features photos taken at a wavelength of 17.1 nanometers, an extreme-ultraviolet wavelength that reveals the Sun’s outermost atmospheric layer: the corona. By compiling images taken 108 seconds apart, the movie condenses about four months, or 133 days, of solar observations into 59 minutes. The video shows bright active regions passing across the Sun’s face as it rotates. The Sun rotates approximately once every 27 days. The loops extending above the bright regions are magnetic fields that have trapped hot, glowing plasma. These bright regions are also the source of solar flares, which appear as bright flashes when magnetic fields snap together in a process called magnetic reconnection.
While SDO has kept a constant watch on the Sun, there have been a few moments it missed. Some of the dark frames in the video are caused by Earth or the Moon eclipsing SDO as they pass between the spacecraft and the Sun. Other blackouts are caused by instrumentation being down or data errors. SDO transmits 1.4 terabytes of data to the ground every day. The images where the Sun is off-center were observed when SDO was calibrating its instruments.

SDO and other NASA missions will continue to monitor our Sun in the coming years, providing further insights into our place in space and information to keep our astronauts and assets safe.

The music is a continuous mix from Lars Leonhard’s “Geometric Shapes” album, courtesy of the artist.

Credits: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
Scott Wiessinger (PAO): Lead Producer
Tom Bridgman (SVS): Lead Visualizer
Scott Wiessinger (PAO): Editor

Video Description:
On the left side of the frame is the full circle of the Sun. It appears in a golden yellow color, but is splotchy and has thin yellow wisps extending from the surface. Some areas are very bright and others almost black. The whole Sun rotates steadily, with one full rotation taking 12 minutes in this time lapse. There are usually only a few bright regions visible at a time and they shift and flash like small fires. From these regions there are wispy loops reaching up above the surface that rapidly change shape and size.

On the right side of the frame are two white-outlined squares with enlargements of interesting regions of the Sun.

#NASA
#SDO
#SolarDynamicsObservatory
#SolarActivity
#Sun
#Corona
#TimeLapse
#Space
#Astronomy
#Science