Spacecraft Sends Back Historic First-Ever Images Of Sun's South Pole

Forbes

4 days ago

Launched in February 2020 to take the first-ever close-up images of the sun, the European Space Agency's Solar Orbiter spacecraft has sent back humanity's first clear images of the sun's south pole. 'Today we reveal humankind's first-ever views of the sun's pole,' said Professor Carole Mundell, ESA's Director of Science. 'These new unique views from our Solar Orbiter mission are the beginning of a new era of solar science.'
Caption: This collage shows Solar Orbiter's view of the Sun's south pole on 16–17 March 2025, from a ... More viewing angle of around 15° below the solar equator. This was the mission's first high-angle observation campaign, a few days before reaching its current maximum viewing angle of 17°.
The unique views of the sun were captured on March 16-17, when Solar Orbiter was orbiting the sun from 15 degrees below the solar equator, enabling it to peek at the sun's south pole for the first time.
The Solar Orbiter's three cameras provide images of the sun in visible light, ultraviolet light, and light emanating from different temperatures of charged gas above the sun's surface, revealing distinct layers of the sun's atmosphere.
One of the mission's first major discoveries is a surprisingly disordered magnetic field at the sun's south pole. Data from one of its cameras reveals that both magnetic polarities — north and south — are present in the region, an unusual state linked to the current solar maximum (the peak of the sun's 11-year solar cycle). That could help scientists figure out why the sun's magnetic field flips during solar maximum, and more accurately predict it.
The Spectral Imaging of the Coronal Environment (SPICE) instrument on the ESA-led Solar Orbiter ... More spacecraft got its first good look at the Sun's south pole in March 2025.
Solar Orbiter's images represent the first-ever views of the sun from a different angle. Until now, almost all images of the sun have been taken from the same point of view on Earth or in Earth's vicinity — the ecliptic plane. If you think about the solar system as a fried egg with the sun as the yolk, all planets orbit in the white. Solar Orbiter is the first to tilt out of this zone. By March 2025, the spacecraft had achieved a 17 degrees inclination to the ecliptic, enabling direct observations of the sun's south pole. 'We didn't know what exactly to expect from these first observations – the sun's poles are literally terra incognita,' said Sami Solanki at the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, Germany, who works on one of Solar Orbiter's instruments.
A camera on the Solar Orbiter, called EUI, images the sun in ultraviolet light, revealing the million-degree charged gas in the sun's outer atmosphere, the corona. In April, ESA published the widest high-resolution view of the sun so far, assembled from 200 images taken by Solar Orbiter on March 9, 2025. The ultraviolet light images showed the corona. Solar scientists must learn about the corona because it's the source of the solar wind — a stream of charged particles emanating from the sun and impacting Earth — and the space weather that causes geomagnetic storms and auroras.
In February 2025, Solar Orbiter became the first Sun-watching spacecraft ever to tilt its orbit out ... More of the ecliptic plane.
Over the next several years, the Solar Orbiter will observe the sun moving toward solar minimum — the trough of the solar cycle — studying how its magnetic structure is reorganized.
The full dataset from these initial observations from Solar Orbiter's newly inclined orbit isn't expected until October 2025, but in the four years following that, solar scientists anticipate unprecedented data. 'This is just the first step of Solar Orbiter's 'stairway to heaven.' In the coming years, the spacecraft will climb further out of the ecliptic plane for ever better views of the sun's polar regions,' said Daniel Müller, ESA's Solar Orbiter project scientist. 'These data will transform our understanding of the sun's magnetic field, the solar wind, and solar activity.'