A NASA sun-studying probe celebrates four years in space this week, and the agency has released a stunning new video to mark the occasion.

Theamazing new video of the sun, which NASA released Tuesday, is a greatest-hits set from the space agency's powerful Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), which is celebrating its fourth year in space. The video showcases some of SDO's most dramatic and beautiful images from the last 12 months.

The nearly four-minute movie includes footage of sunspots,solar flares powerful blasts of light in X-ray and other wavelengths and prominence eruptions, which send loops of solar material out into the sun's atmosphere.

NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatoryblasted off from Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on Feb. 11, 2010, on a mission to study solar activity and help scientists understand how variations in that activity affect life here on Earth.

"Scientists study these images to better understand the complex electromagnetic system causing the constant movement on the sun, which can ultimately have an effect closer to Earth, too: Flares and another type of solar explosion called coronal mass ejections can sometimes disrupt technology in space," NASA officials wrote in a description of the video. nasa-sun-observatory-fourth-anniversary-video-sdo

SDO captures high-resolution views of the sun in 10 different wavelengths 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The probe records images of the solar atmosphere in unprecedented detail, researchers say.

Solar Quiz: How Well Do You Know Our Sun?

Many of us take the sun for granted, giving it little thought until it scorches our skin or gets in our eyes. But our star is a fascinating and complex object, a gigantic fusion reactor that gives us life. How much do you know about the sun?

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Solar Quiz: How Well Do You Know Our Sun?

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NASA Sun-Watching Spacecraft Celebrates 4th Birthday with Amazing Video