Three wavelengths of extreme ultraviolet light

One year ago, NASA launched the Solar Dynamics Observatory on an Atlas rocket from Cape Canaveral. Since then it has returned millions of images of the sun with incredible detail.

This image, taken on Friday, exactly one year to the day after the spacecraft's February 11, 2010 launch, combines three wavelengths of extreme ultraviolet light.

The Atmospheric Imaging Assembly, one of the three instruments onboard, creates an image of the sun every 12 seconds in 10 different wavelengths, giving detailed analysis of the sun at different temperatures.

The Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) continues to send images of phenomena like solar flares and coronal mass ejections back at a rate of 150 megabits per second.