This is a timelapse of the sun over 16 days in October. It was made by the Solar Dynamics Observatory, who combined over 17,000 images to create the timelapse. The celebrity of the video is the giant sunspot that starts out of view on the far right and slowly makes its way all the way across the sun to the far left by the end of the video (spewing out a bunch of delicious huge solar flares along the way). It’s the largest sunspot since 1990—you’d have to line up 10 Earths side by side to stretch across the whole thing.
In general, the sun is so big that if you put the US onto the surface, it would barely be visible in this video it would be so tiny. Make sure to watch in full screen. (via Kottke)
