133 Days on the sun (Part 1)

This video chronicles solar activity from Aug. 12 to Dec. 22, 2022, as captured by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO). From its orbit in space around Earth, SDO has steadily imaged the Sun in 4K x 4K resolution for nearly 13 years. This information has enabled countless new discoveries about the workings of our closest star and how it influences the solar system.

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 133-day 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 images taken 108 seconds apart, the movie

condenses 133 days, or about four months, of solar observations into 59

minutes. The video shows bright active regions passing across the face of the

Sun 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 as magnetic fields snap together in a process called

magnetic reconnection.

While SDO has kept an unblinking eye pointed toward 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 watch our Sun in the years to come, providing further insights about 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.

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

This video can be freely shared and downloaded at

https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/14263. While the video in its entirety can be shared without permission, the music and some individual imagery may have been obtained through permission and may not be excised or remixed in other products. Specific details on such imagery may be found here: https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/14263. For more information on NASA's media

guidelines, visit https://nasa.gov/multimedia/guidelines.

Video Description:

On the left side of the frame is the full circle of the Sun. It appears in a golden yellow color, but splotchy and with 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 lanse