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February 11, 2015 marks five years in space for NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory, which provides incredibly detailed images of the whole sun 24 hours a day. Capturing an image more than once per second, SDO has provided an unprecedentedly clear picture of how massive explosions on the sun grow and erupt ever since its launch on Feb. 11, 2010. The imagery is also captivating, allowing one to watch the constant ballet of solar material through the sun's atmosphere, the corona.

In honor of SDO's fifth anniversary, NASA has released a video showcasing highlights from the last five years of sun watching. Watch the movie to see giant clouds of solar material hurled out into space, the dance of giant loops hovering in the corona, and huge sunspots growing and shrinking on the sun's surface.

The imagery is an example of the kind of data that SDO provides to scientists. By watching the sun in different wavelengths – and therefore different temperatures – scientists can watch how material courses through the corona, which holds clues to what causes eruptions on the sun, what heats the sun's atmosphere up to 1,000 times hotter than its surface, and why the sun's magnetic fields are constantly on the move.

Five years into its mission, SDO continues to send back tantalizing imagery to incite scientists' curiosity. For example, in late 2014, SDO captured imagery of the largest sun spots seen since 1995 as well as a torrent of intense solar flares. Solar flares are bursts of light, energy and X-rays. They can occur by themselves or can be accompanied by what's called a coronal mass ejection, or CME, in which a giant cloud of solar material erupts off the sun, achieves escape velocity and heads off into space. In this case, the sun produced only flares and no CMEs, which, while not unheard of, is somewhat unusual for flares of that size. Scientists are looking at that data now to see if they can determine what circumstances might have led to flares eruptions alone.

Goddard built, operates and manages the SDO spacecraft for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington, D.C. SDO is the first mission of NASA's Living with a Star Program. The program's goal is to develop the scientific understanding necessary to address those aspects of the sun-Earth system that directly affect our lives and society.

I know there's little to discuss but I wanted to share this anyway because it kinda blew my mind. For me personally the sun is pretty frightning. The concept of this ball of fire millions and millions of miles away influencing our every day is just so surreal when you start thinking about it. In fact, the entire concept of "space" always kind of freaks me out when I really stop and think about it.

Another thing I liked about this video is how it also pretty much confirms how incredibly on-point the CGI rendition of the sun in the movie Sunshine was.

 

[Flintty]

Holy shit, awesome. mindblown.gif

 

[JoeBoy101]

Some next level shit in that video. I assume the more yellow-greenish portions were electro-magnetic views?

 

[Always-honest]

Wow... That is awesome.
Was that mercury, by the way?

 

[maquiladora]

Based Sol. Thank you for the light and heat that has made all life on earth possible.

 

[lednerg]

That is absolutely breathtaking. I wish we could go back in time and show that to the first astronomers.

 

[Bornstellar]

 

[Princess Carl]

Stuff like this and VR makes me excited for the near future.

 

[Surface of Me]

The sun is scary.

 

[BGBW]

Then never play Super Mario Bros 3 OP.

 

[Clydefrog]

What if the sun is a fedora-wearing nerd with irritable bowel syndrome?

Its majesty remains

 

[mentallyinept]

Those mass ejection clips are insane.

Several times the size of Earth.

 

[Marky Mark]

I sat there with a smile on my face for the whole video after I saw what I assume to be Mercury(?). This is incredible, thanks for linking.

Also, coincidentally, Toy Story 3 is on TV right now and when I looked up from my laptop I saw the incinerator scene playing out.

And this:

Looks like a three-legged robot guy.

edit: Is there a continual stream of all of NASA's footage of the Sun? I'd love to have a small monitor constantly streaming that on a wall or something.

 

[Jburton]

What if the sun is a fedora-wearing nerd with irritable bowel syndrome?

Its majesty remains

What's the problem with IBS?



Also the sun is the one, true creator.

 

[Chichikov]

 

[MIMIC]

The sun could use some Pepto-Bismol

 

[ConfusingJazz]

Yeah, I really look forward to the annual SDO glory shot video, they are typically amazing.

And be it ever so cheesy, I really love the 3rd year one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dVCe5elYvu0

 

[CassSept]

#TeamCG

Honestly though, it looks incredible. Absolutely stunning and frightening when you consider the scale of the events showcased.

 

[Baron Doggystyle von Woof]

Holy shit! The sun is glorious!

 

[LiquidMetal14]

Yes.

 

[EdwardTivrusky]

Praise the Sun!

 

[Escape Goat]

You forgot the other video the observatory captured

 

[Bold One]

 

[onken]

Amazing!

 

[Tesseract]

thank you for this, i could cry

 

[Nokterian]

Wow... That is awesome.
Was that mercury, by the way?

No that's venus closed to the sun. It's very pretty to see this and how this big ball keeps us warm but also earth keeps protection us from solar radiation.

 

[PuppetSlave]

Wow, looks amazing. And to think, that's just one star.

It looks so gentle from afar but close up it's quite aggressive

 

[Virus]

So beautiful. How do they turn that into SunnyD?

 

[PetriP-TNT]

Wow that's really something!

 

[Tektur]

You really get the sense from this video that the Sun is scary, powerful and glorious.

Space is really cool you guys.

 

[desu]

This! Really amazing video.

 

[Seanspeed]

Thank you atmosphere.

 

[deadlast]

That was amazing. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Agentnibs]

Incredible, it looks like the creation of life if that makes sense

 

[Bisnic]

Amazing video. Sucks that the sun doesn't that cool when you look in the sky.

 

[bryehn]

I can barely get macro mode on my phone to work right, this is astounding.

 

[John Kowalski]

darn

if only i could be so grossly incandescent

 

[Exokell]

Absolutely beautiful, love you science

 

[PS3GamerKyle]

Breathtaking...

Stupid question...but it happens a few times throughout. For example, it happens at 3:35 in the video. What is the circular black dot traveling through the frame?

 

[Chichikov]

Breathtaking...

Stupid question...but it happens a few times throughout. For example, it happens at 3:35 in the video. What is the circular black dot traveling through the frame?

That's venus.

Fun fact about the venus transit, it's how europeans discovered Australia.

 

[zoukka]

Stupid question...but it happens a few times throughout. For example, it happens at 3:35 in the video. What is the circular black dot traveling through the frame?

A planet. Probably Mercury.

EDIT: Ok it's venus? Puts shit in scale nicely. Those assplosions are big.

 

[DBT85]

Incredible footage.

 

[Pikma]

So beautiful. How do they turn that into SunnyD?

They just add the D
duh!

 

[Chichikov]

A planet. Probably Mercury.

EDIT: Ok it's venus? Puts shit in scale nicely. Those assplosions are big.

For comparison -

 

[Marvie_3]

Amazing video. Space is so awesome

 

[lacinius]

Stunning... just stunning. More funding for NASA please.

It still gets me knowing those solar flares you see shooting out would incinerate the Earth like it was nothing... and then you learn that our Sun is actually kind of a rather small star compared with so many others, just wow.

 

[John Dunbar]

it's pretty incredible how ancient civilizations could invent something like the sun when we're still struggling with fossil fuels. can you imagine what was lost with the library of alexandria?

 

[GorillaJu]

holy shit

 

[Chichikov]

and then you learn that our Sun is actually kind of a rather small star compared with so many others, just wow.

While there are stars which are much brighter and/or bigger than the sun, the sun is actually bigger than most stars.

it's pretty incredible how ancient civilizations could invent something like the sun when we're still struggling with fossil fuels. can you imagine what was lost with the library of alexandria?

I'm pretty sure they didn't have the secret of nuclear fusion there.

Spoiler

am I missing a joke here?

 

[SniperHunter]

Hard to believe stars of this size will keep on going for 8 billion years. The science behind them is mindblowing