The Sun's surface isn't calm as the massive fireball is constantly disturbed by loops of plasma based on the new video released by NASA.
Watch The Sun's Activities in 133 Days
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center shared an hour-long time lapse after observing the Sun for 133 days. It features photos taken at a wavelength of 17.1 nanometers, extreme ultra-violet wavelengths of light, showcasing the Sun's outermost atmospheric layer - the corona.
The images were taken 108 seconds apart for about four months and were condensed into an hour-long video. It shows the bright, active regions passing across the face of the Sun as it rotates approximately once every 27 days.
The magnetic fields that trap hot, glowing plasma are the visible loops that extend above the bright regions. Those bright regions are also where solar flares start.
Solar flares appear as bright flashes as magnetic fields break and reconnect in a process called magnetic reconnection.
NASA's Solar Dynamic Observatory (SDO) captures approximately 70,000 images daily, totaling up to 1.5 terabytes of data. All of the data are stored in a single repository, which a 2017 paper published in Nature described as "... one of the richest and biggest repositories of solar image data available to mankind," Science Alert reported.
However, NASA noted that despite SDO's 24/7 watch on the Sun, it still missed a few moments. According to the organization, the dark frames in the video are caused by Earth or the Moon eclipsing SDO as they pass between the spacecraft and the Sun.
The other blackouts are due to the instrument being down or data errors. The images where the Sun is off-center were observed when SDO calibrated its instruments.
Several were in awe after watching the solar activities in the video. Many found it "amazing," "breathtaking," and "interesting." One user said it was crazy to see all the activities in an hour-long video and said it was "hypnotic to a degree."
NASA Marked SDO's 10th Anniversary With a Similar Video
NASA's SDO was launched on Feb. 11, 2010. It has been watching the Sun for over a decade already.
On Feb. 11, 2020, the organization shared a five-minute clip highlighting SDO's journey to mark its 10th anniversary in space.
The video included the launching of the spacecraft and various pictures and videos of the Sun that proves helpful in giving insights about solar activities and space weather.
SDO has witnessed incredible solar events and helped scientists make groundbreaking discoveries about the Sun, including the special kind of ripple on the Sun, called Kelvin-Helmholtz waves, in 2011. The ripple appears like ocean waves.
On June 7, 2011, SDO captured a huge plasma eruption on the Sun. It was the first time an event was captured in such fine detail.
Two months later, SDO observed one of the most powerful flares of the solar cycle. The spacecraft records different wavelengths, and one was tuned to the hottest parts of the Sun.
SDO is part of NASA's Living With a Star (LWS) program. Its primary mission lasted five years, but the agency kept it operational until 2030. So, it is expected to keep its eye on the Sun for seven more years.
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