NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), which has been capturing an image of the Earth-facing side of the sun nearly once per second, marked its fifth year in space on Feb. 11.
Since its launch in 2010, the SDO has been providing scientists with data that help shed light on how massive solar explosions grow and erupt. It also measures the fluctuations in the extreme ultraviolet output of the sun that provides most of the energy that heats the upper atmosphere of our planet.
To commemorate the SDO's fifth anniversary, scientists from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) have come up with a timelapse video of the sun over the last five years. The video has captured one frame per eight hours beginning with data from June 2010 until Feb. 8 just this year.
The varying colors that can be seen represent the differences in the wavelengths of ultraviolet light, extreme ultraviolet light and visible light that correspond to solar materials of varying temperatures in which the sun is observed by the SDO. A second video was also made, and this features the highlight of the last five years.
The images used in the videos show the kind of data that scientists get from the SDO. Scientists are able to watch how solar materials course through the corona, a phenomenon that could unveil the cause of the sun's eruption, the source of what heats the atmosphere of the sun for up to 1,000 times hotter than the surface, as well as reveal why the magnetic fields of the sun constantly move.
Scientists have taken note of the contributions made by the SDO. In 2014, the SDO captured images of the largest sun spot since 1995 and intense solar flares.
SDO project scientist Dean Pesnell said that there have been over 2,000 scientific papers that were published using data sent by the SDO. Pesnell also said that the mission has also paved the way for wonderful international collaborations, with the data being used and shared globally.
"This mission has touched us on many levels; it evokes a sense of wonder when we see these beautiful images," said SDO program scientist Lika Guhathakurta regarding the SDO. "It stokes our curiosity and it connects us personally to the deepest mysteries -- from the warmth we feel on our skin when we walk outside on a sunny day to the distant reaches of the cosmos."
Here are the two videos released by the U.S. space agency:
