--- title: Watch NASA's Trippy Time-Lapse Video of the Sun Made Over 5 Years description: NASA has released a time-lapse video of the sun that shows everything the Solar Dynamics Observatory has seen since June 2010 canonical: https://time.com/3708662/sun-time-lapse-video-nasa/ author: Helen Regan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-02-13T08:27:04.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T08:03:06.695Z article:section: Science og:title: This Video of the Sun Is the Trippiest Thing You'll See Today og:description: Five years of cosmic fire time-lapsed into three minutes. og:url: https://time.com/3708662/sun-time-lapse-video-nasa/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt932ce0d0675fd639/69877f2955a8598804a85cfd/timelapse2.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1280 og:image:height: 720 og:image:alt: timelapse2 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: This Video of the Sun Is the Trippiest Thing You'll See Today twitter:description: Five years of cosmic fire time-lapsed into three minutes. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt932ce0d0675fd639/69877f2955a8598804a85cfd/timelapse2.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # This Time-Lapse Video of the Sun Is the Trippiest Thing You'll See Today > Sponsored content. 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Future Proof is TIME's weekly climate and energy newsletter, written by senior correspondent Justin Worland. It connects the energy transition to the decisions reshaping business, technology, policy and markets. #### Where can I follow the energy transition as a business story? Future Proof covers climate and energy as an economic and business story rather than only an environmental one. It publishes every Friday and is free at time.com/newsletters. #### Who writes Future Proof? Justin Worland, a senior correspondent at TIME and an award-winning climate journalist, writes Future Proof. #### Is Future Proof free? Yes. Future Proof is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-futureproof-2026q3/newsletters?i=47c941b5-e8e9-41d1-8e1d-1b144c489266&cr=time-nl-futureproof-2026q3-v1) ## Video: New Earth-like Planets Discovered By NASA's Kepler Telescope [Watch (HLS stream): New Earth-like Planets Discovered By NASA's Kepler Telescope](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/fCApPc72.m3u8) (1:58)  _Published 2015-01-22. NASA's Kepler mission discovers three earth-like planets existing in their star's "Goldilocks zone."_ by [Helen Regan](https://time.com/author/helen-regan/) ## Helen Regan Feb 13, 2015 8:27 AM UTC  NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center by [Helen Regan](https://time.com/author/helen-regan/) ## Helen Regan Feb 13, 2015 8:27 AM UTC NASA has released a mesmerizing time-lapse video of the sun that shows everything the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) has seen over the past five years, condensed into just under three minutes. The supertrippy but rather beautiful video was captured by the SDO to celebrate their fifth anniversary and shows the giant ball of gas spinning and changing color. According to [NASA](http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/details.cgi?aid=11762), each color represents a different visual wavelength through which the SDO observes the sun. The time lapse was made by capturing one frame every eight hours since data collection began in June 2010, right up until Feb. 8, 2015. ## Transcript [ MUSIC ] The Kepler space telescope is a telescope that has been orbiting the sun since 2009 and its whole job is to look for what are known as exo- planets, planets orbiting stars other than the sun. It stares at a single patch. At the Milky Way without blinking, forever. And what it's looking for are flickers in starlight that indicate a planet passing front of its sun, slightly dimming the light that reaches us. The biggest goal of the Kepler mission is to find what astronomers call Mirror Earths. Planets like ours around the size of Earth, orbiting in what's called, a Sun's Goldilocks Zone. The place where it's not too hot, not too cold. just right for water to exist in liquid form. Water, of course, is the essential ingredient for life, as we know it. What we just discovered. Were two planets that are orbiting their sun in the Goldilocks Zone, almost certainly warm enough, but not too warm. Not too cold for water to exist in liquid form. And they're also close to the size of Earth. This suggests they could be rocky worlds like Earth is, as opposed to giant gas balls like Neptune and Jupiter are. And that's significant because that's an easier place for life to take hold. Missions like Kepler are important because humanity is a little bit like fish in an aquarium. It might be the most magnificent, most richly equipped aquarium in the world, but we're on one side of the glass. We're looking out. We're looking across the living room, out the window of the house, down the block. We wanna get there. Our curiosity makes us ache to get there. 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