If you're feeling like you could use something new and different to watch to take your mind off the state of the world, consider the Sun.

NASA has released a video, embedded below, that shows it in a way you probably have never seen, and maybe never even imagined.

The video shows an entire decade of activity on the Sun in the span of a single episode of, well, name your favorite television series. If you're anything like me (a proud science visualization geek), and probably even if you're not, you might find it mesmerizing. (The music helps!)

The video is a time-lapse consisting of one high-resolution photo taken every hour of every day by the Solar Dynamics Observatory between June 2, 2010 and June 1 of this year. It condenses those 10 years into just 61 minutes.

A number of particularly noteworthy solar events that are part of the Suns 11-year solar cycle are captured in the video, including eruptions, flares, explosions, prominences, etc. These features tend to go by quickly and are easy to miss. So I've also included visualizatons that capture some of these spectacular events in great detail, along with short explanations.

Go here to see the original:

Up close and personal: 10 years in the life of the Sun - Astronomy Magazine