NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory has been taking a picture of the sun every 0.75 seconds for a decade. Above is a time-lapse of the resulting 20 million gigabytes of data:
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. Compiling one photo every hour, the movie condenses a decade of the Sun into 61 minutes. The video shows the rise and fall in activity that occurs as part of the Sun’s 11-year solar cycle and notable events, like transiting planets and eruptions.
