5-channel projection

To the Aztecs, it was Tonatiuh. To the Mesopotamians, it was Shamash. To the ancient Romans, it was Sol Invictus, the Unconquered Sun. Deifications of the Sun throughout time embody the life-giving energy or soul-scorching judgment that represent the dual nature of our solar system’s central star. Every second the Sun consumes more than four million tons of matter and converts it into solar radiation and neutrinos. This immense energy has the power to produce life through photosynthesis, warmth, and weather, or destroy life via the poverty or overabundance of the same. Even at a distance of approximately 93 million miles from Earth, the fate of life on our planet is inextricably linked to the Sun. In time, the Sun's diameter will expand and its luminosity intensify as it burns hydrogen at an ever increasing rate. Current computer models indicate that the searing halo of heat and radiation will at last consume the planets Mercury, Venus, and Earth as our star transitions from a yellow dwarf into a red giant.

The raw content of this installation comes from photographs collected by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory. The images were compiled in Daniel Müller’s program JHelioviewer before being processed.