Three Years of Solar Events in Three Minutes

The Transit of Venus. Partial eclipses of the sun by the moon. The largest flare of this solar cycle. Comet Lovejoy,. These are some of the highlights of the last three years in the life of our star. And thanks to NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), we have a nearly unbroken record of these events. 

A shot of the sun is taken by by SDO every 12 seconds in 10 different wavelengths, and they have been stitched together in the amazing video below.

Here is where each of these events appears in the video:

00:30;24 Partial eclipse by the moon

00:31;16 Roll maneuver

01:11;02 August 9, 2011 X6.9 Flare, currently the largest of this solar cycle

01:28;07 Comet Lovejoy, December 15, 2011

01:42;29 Roll Maneuver

01:51;07 Transit of Venus, June 5, 2012

02:28;13 Partial eclipse by the moon