NASA reveals beautiful 4K video footage of the sun
With soothing music in the background and images of swirling storms and iridescent solar flares, NASA's new 30-minute video of the sun filmed in 4K, Ultra HD video is an absorbing look at the celestial body.
Billed as offering an unprecedented view of the sun, the video was compiled from images taken every 12 seconds by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory. It took about 300 hours for the video to be created, with media specialists spending ten hours to create just one minute of footage.
Each wavelength captured was given its own unique color, and through 4K video, the presentation has four times better resolution than standard HD.
The footage, titled "Thermonuclear Art," is one of five 4K videos released by NASA this month. The space agency has called this the "first major release of 4K video content presented in the public domain," but one problem remains -- the average viewer doesn't yet have a screen with 4K resolution to view the footage as it was originally intended.
Although you won't get the full effect on your 1080p monitor, it still looks amazing in full 4K resolution. (Yes, you will see the difference if you choose the higher-res version from the settings icon. Just prepare to buffer a little more.)
