NASA Discloses a 1-Hour Time-Lapse of the Sun in 133 Days

Have you ever considered how the Sun appears when it is moving? How does it act and move? Fortunately for us, NASA managed to catch the enormous solar object in 133 days and then produced an intriguing time-lapse film lasting an hour. The Solar Dynamics Observatory of NASA recorded the solar activity from August 12 to December 22, 2022. (SDO). Observing the Stars SDO has been continuously observing the Sun from its orbit around the Earth in 4K x 4K resolution since it was launched in 2010 as a part of NASA's Living With a Star (LWS) programme. In order for scientists to interpret and forecast catastrophic space weather that could jeopardise satellites and other infrastructure, NASA's LWS programme seeks to better understand the Sun. [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="676"] Image credit- Phys.org[/caption] SDO uses a trio of equipment to take a photograph of the Sun every 0.75 seconds. The Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) equipment also captures images every 12 seconds at ten different light wavelengths. This 133-day time-lapse was photographed at a wavelength of 17.1 nanometers, an incredibly ultraviolet wavelength that can be used to see the Sun's corona. By blending photographs taken 108 seconds apart, the film condenses 133 days, or about four months, of sun observations into 59 minutes. For more information, see This 70-Foot Nuclear Fusion Gun Aims to Fire a 1-billion-G Projectile to Recreate the Sun's Energy Production. Active Colorful Patches The movie shows the brilliant active areas sweeping across the Sun's surface. According to NASA, the loops above the dazzling regions are magnetic fields that have captured hot plasma. Additionally, solar flares, which are powerful bursts brought on by the magnetic reconnection process in which magnetic fields collide, are produced in these brilliant regions. Despite maintaining a focused look on the Sun, SDO lost a few opportunities, according to NASA. Some of the black frames in the movie may have been caused by Earth or the Moon blocking the Sun from the spacecraft as they passed in front of it. [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="642"] Image credit- ScienceAlert[/caption] Other blackouts are brought either by data errors or instruments that have fallen over. In the years to come, SDO and other NASA missions will monitor our Sun, providing fresh information about our location in space and information to safeguard astronauts, satellites, and many other spacecraft. It is important to note that other entities are also keeping an eye on the Sun. Since its launch in 1995, the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) of the European Space Agency (ESA) has been studying the Sun. The closest object ever built by humans to the Sun, the Parker Solar Probe, was also launched by NASA in 2018. In the meantime, the ESA recently launched the Solar Orbiter in 2020. Its duties include observing the Sun's poles and taking the closest-ever pictures of the star.