133 Days on the Sun. NASA Mission

This video documents the Sun's activity from August 12 to December 22, 2022, using images captured by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO). The SDO has been observing the Sun from its orbit around Earth for almost 13 years. This long-term data collection has led to many discoveries about the Sun's behavior and its impact on our solar system.
The SDO employs three instruments to capture the Sun's images: one every 0.75 seconds and the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) every 12 seconds in ten different light wavelengths. The video focuses on a 133-day period and displays images taken at a wavelength of 17.1 nanometers, which shows the Sun's outermost layer called the corona. By compiling images taken 108 seconds apart, the video condenses over four months of solar observations into 59 minutes. The video illustrates active regions moving across the Sun's surface due to its rotation, which takes about 27 days. The bright areas also exhibit loops extending above them, which represent magnetic fields holding superheated plasma. These regions are responsible for solar flares, intense bursts of light caused by magnetic field interactions.
While SDO diligently observes the Sun, there are instances when its view is blocked. Some dark frames in the video occur when Earth or the Moon come between SDO and the Sun. Other blackouts result from technical issues or data errors. SDO sends around 1.4 terabytes of data to Earth daily. Off-center Sun images happened during SDO's instrument calibration.
In the future, SDO and other NASA missions will continue scrutinizing the Sun, offering more insights about our position in space and ensuring the safety of astronauts and space assets.