PALO ALTO, Calif., Jan. 22 (UPI) -- Malcolm Gladwell says it takes 10,000 hours of practice to become an expert in a given field. Naturally, he calls the principle the "10,000-Hour Rule." By that pseudoscientific measure, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration is an Einstein of solar photography.

This week, NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory released its 100-millionth image of the sun, a total amassed in just under five years. The satellite uses its chief instrument, the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly, to snap a shot of the sun once every 12 seconds.

The AIA uses four telescopes working in conjunction, capturing the radiation emanating from the solar chromosphere and corona. The instrument captures radiation in eight channels, capturing 10 different wavelengths and spanning a temperature range from 20,000 degrees Kelvin to more than 20 million degrees Kelvin.

"Between the AIA and two other instruments on board, the Helioseismic Magnetic Imager and the Extreme Ultraviolet Variability Experiment, SDO sends down a whopping 1.5 terabytes of data a day," NASA officials wrote in a news release announcing the 100-million milestone.

"AIA is responsible for about half of that. Every day it provides 57,600 detailed images of the sun that show the dance of how solar material sways and sometimes erupts in the solar atmosphere, the corona."

The AIA is managed by scientists at the Lockheed Martin Solar and Astrophysics Laboratory, located in Palo Alto, California, in conjunction with researchers at Stanford University.

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NASA releases 100-millionth image of the sun