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WATCH | NASA releases 10-year timelapse of the Sun

The video captures the Sun over a period of 10 years into 61 minutes, compiling one photo per hour.

June 29, 2020 / 09:21 AM IST
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The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has released a 10-year timelapse of the Sun. It has been prepared from the images gathered by its Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) between June 2, 2010 and June 1, 2020.

Over the past 10 years, NASA’s SDO has gathered 425 million high-resolution images of the Sun, amassing 20 million gigabytes of data from its orbit in space around Earth. With a triad of instruments, SDO captures an image of the Sun every 0.75 seconds, which are used to prepare the time lapse.

“This 10-year 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,” said NASA.

The video captures the Sun over a period of 10 years into 61 minutes, compiling one photo per hour. It shows the rise and fall in the activity that occurs as part of the Sun’s 11-year solar cycle and notable events, like transiting planets and eruptions.

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

Even though the SDO kept an "unblinking eye" on the Sun, some moments was 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 explained.

According to NASA, the information collected by SDO has enabled countless new discoveries about the workings of Earth’s closest star and how it influences the solar system.

In the upcoming years, SDO and other NASA missions will continue to watch the Sun, providing further insights about “our place in space” and information to keep astronauts and assets safe, added NASA.

Moneycontrol News
first published: Jun 29, 2020 09:16 am

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