Days on the Sun

This video chronicles sun pastime from Aug. 12 to Dec. 22, 2022, as captured via NASA’s solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO). From its orbit in space around Earth, SDO has steadily imaged the solar in 4K x 4K decision for nearly 13 years. This facts has enabled infinite new discoveries about the workings of our closest star and how it affects the solar device.

With a triad of gadgets, SDO captures an photograph of the sun each 0.seventy five seconds. The Atmospheric Imaging meeting (AIA) instrument alone captures pics each 12 seconds at 10 specific wavelengths of light. This 133-day time lapse showcases snap shots taken at a wavelength of 17.1 nanometers, that's an excessive-ultraviolet wavelength that suggests the sun’s outermost atmospheric layer: the corona. Compiling images taken 108 seconds aside, the film condenses 133 days, or approximately four months, of sun observations into 59 mins. The video indicates brilliant lively areas passing across the face of the sun as it rotates. The sun rotates about as soon as every 27 days. The loops extending above the bright areas are magnetic fields which have trapped hot, sparkling plasma. these bright areas also are the source of solar flares, which appear as bright flashes as magnetic fields snap collectively in a method known as magnetic reconnection.

whilst SDO has saved an unblinking eye pointed toward the solar, there had been some moments it ignored. a number of the dark frames in the video are caused by Earth or the Moon eclipsing SDO as they pass between the spacecraft and the solar. other blackouts are caused by instrumentation being down or records errors. SDO transmits 1.4 terabytes of statistics to the ground every day. The pix in which the sun is off-center were discovered whilst SDO was calibrating its gadgets.

SDO and other NASA missions will retain to look at our solar inside the future years, providing further insights approximately our place in space and information to keep our astronauts and property secure.