--- 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=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 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=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # This Time-Lapse Video of the Sun Is the Trippiest Thing You'll See Today ## 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. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3708662/sun-time-lapse-video-nasa/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3708662/sun-time-lapse-video-nasa/"},"headline":"This Time-Lapse Video of the Sun Is the Trippiest Thing You'll See Today","datePublished":"2015-02-13T08:27:04.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T08:03:06.695Z","description":"A disco ball from space","url":"https://time.com/3708662/sun-time-lapse-video-nasa/","keywords":["astronomy","Newsfeed","NASA","video","sun","Time-lapse"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt932ce0d0675fd639/69877f2955a8598804a85cfd/timelapse2.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Helen Regan","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/helen-regan/"}],"articleSection":"Science","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt932ce0d0675fd639/69877f2955a8598804a85cfd/timelapse2.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"timelapse2","caption":"","creditText":"NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/science/","name":"Science"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/astronomy/","name":"astronomy"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3708662/sun-time-lapse-video-nasa/","name":"This Time-Lapse Video of the Sun Is the Trippiest Thing You'll See Today"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"New Earth-like Planets Discovered By NASA's Kepler Telescope","description":"NASA's Kepler mission discovers three earth-like planets existing in their star's \"Goldilocks zone.\"","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/fCApPc72/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2015-01-22T15:33:32.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/fCApPc72.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/3708662/sun-time-lapse-video-nasa/","duration":"PT1M58S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/3708662/sun-time-lapse-video-nasa/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```