Science
#NASA #sun # timelapse #video
June 29, 2020
Grace Ebert
Most experts advise against looking at the sun for more than a few seconds, and yet a new NASA time lapse allows viewers to peer into the fiery mass for an entire decade. Over the course of ten years, the Solar Dynamics Observatory took more than 425 million images of the massive star that were captured within .75 seconds of each other. Added in a one-hour compilation titled “A Decade of Sun”, the photographs provide visual evidence of how the giant orb works and its influence on the rest of the solar system. Each image was captured at a wavelength of 17.1 nanometers, or one billionth of a meter, to show the outer atmospheric layer called the corona.
NASA has shared on YouTube a list of notable moments, including an appearance of Venus and an iconic disruption in 2012. Most of the dark spots in the video are the result of the earth or moon passing between the Solar Dynamics Observatory. And it blocks your vision, although there was a longer lapse in 2016 due to equipment malfunction. When the spacecraft recalibrated its tools, the sun shifts to one side of the screen.
Head over to YouTube to dive into more NASA explorations in outer space.
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