14 DAY TRIAL // NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory has been staring at the sun, against its parents' advice no doubt, for three years now. Not only that, it's been doing it at different wavelengths at the same time.
We've learned a lot about the closest star to Earth since then and we've seen some spectacular images and videos.
Now, the SDO team has put together a video showing the sun's transition throughout the past three years as we get closer to the climax of solar activity.
At a rate of two images per day, the video is just four minutes long. In that time, the rise in activity is evident.
There are also some Easter Eggs to spot, like partial eclipses, passing comets and so on. You can try and spot them all on your own, but thankfully NASA has listed them all.
00:30 Partial eclipse by the moon 00:31 Roll maneuver 01:11 August 9, 2011 X6.9 Flare, currently the largest of this solar cycle 01:28 Comet Lovejoy, December 15, 2011 01:42 Roll Maneuver 01:51 Transit of Venus, June 5, 2012 02:28 Partial eclipse by the moon.