Solar Orbiter captures breakthrough images of sun's south pole
The European Space Agency (ESA) released the first-ever images of the sun 's south pole, captured by the Solar Orbiter spacecraft.
The images, taken in March from roughly 40 million miles away, were obtained during a period of maximum solar activity and used three of Solar Orbiter's onboard instruments.
Solar Orbiter, launched in 2020 in collaboration with NASA, tilted its trajectory using a Venus flyby to gain a view from 17 degrees below the sun's equator, with future flybys set to increase this angle.
Scientists are using Solar Orbiter to study the sun's magnetic field, activity cycle, and solar wind, aiming to improve predictions of the solar cycle and its effects on Earth.
Unlike the Ulysses spacecraft, which flew over the solar poles in the 1990s but lacked optical instruments, Solar Orbiter can image the sun.
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