Latest news with #CaroleMundell
Sky News
6 hours ago
- Science
- Sky News
World-first views of the Sun's poles released - but scientists say best is yet to come
The sun's south pole has been seen for the first time from outside the ecliptic plane in unprecedented images sent back to Earth by a solar orbiter. The Solar Orbiter spacecraft travelled 15 degrees below the sun's solar equator to take the images in mid-March - with the European Space Agency (ESA) and NASA revealing them to the world on Wednesday. It is only the second craft to have passed over the sun's poles - with the ESA and NASA's 1990-2009 Ulysses craft lacking the capacity to take any photos. "Today we reveal humankind's first-ever views of the sun's pole," ESA's director of science, Professor Carole Mundell, said. Describing it as a "new era of solar science", she added: "The sun is our nearest star, giver of life and potential disruptor of modern space and ground power systems, so it is imperative that we understand how it works and learn to predict its behaviour." 'Best is yet to come' According to the ESA, previous images of the sun have been taken from around its equator. This is because Earth, the other planets, and all other operational spacecraft orbit the Sun within a flat disc around the Sun called the ecliptic plane. However, by tilting its orbit out of this plane, Solar Orbiter has revealed the star from a whole new angle - and because the spacecraft is set to tilt even further "the best views are yet to come". The Solar Orbiter took off from Florida in 2020. Unlike Earth, which has fixed north and south poles, the sun's equivalents flip on an 11-year cycle. This is because its equator spins faster than its poles - every 26 days compared to every 33 days - meaning it does not rotate as a solid object, instead becoming so unstable it eventually flips. The sun is currently at what is referred to as "solar maximum", when the star is building up to the polar flip. During this period, its spots and solar flares are most active. In five or six years, the sun will reach its "solar minimum", when its magnetic activity is at its lowest. The images from Solar Orbiter's recent journey reveal a fragmented mosaic of north and south polarity at the sun's base. The spacecraft will continue its orbit around the sun until Christmas Eve 2026. Its next flight will see it fly past Venus in 2029.
Yahoo
6 hours ago
- Science
- Yahoo
South pole of the Sun pictured for the first time
The south pole of the Sun has been seen for the first time, in images sent by the British-built spacecraft Solar Orbiter. Usually it is impossible to see underneath the Sun because Earth and all other spacecraft orbit within a flat disc around its equator. For the first time, Solar Orbiter has moved into a tilted orbit of 17 degrees below the equator, giving a new view of our star. 'Today we reveal humankind's first-ever views of the Sun's pole,' said Prof Carole Mundell, director of science at the European Space Agency (ESA). 'The Sun is our nearest star, giver of life and potential disruptor of modern space and ground power systems, so it is imperative that we understand how it works and learn to predict its behaviour. 'These new unique views from our Solar Orbiter mission are the beginning of a new era of solar science.' Solar Orbiter, which is a joint venture between the ESA and Nasa, launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, in 2020, taking two years to reach the Sun. Constructed by Airbus in Stevenage, Hertfordshire, and carrying several British instruments, the probe was designed to give unprecedented images of the Sun, helping predict dangerous solar flares in time for counter measures to be implemented, such as grounding planes or backing up power plants. Although extreme solar storms are rare, smaller flares have caused widespread disruption in recent times, with a geomagnetic storm leaving six million Canadians without power in 1989. A recent analysis shows that 'severe' magnetic storms occurred in 42 out of the last 150 years, and 'great' super-storms occur six times in every 150 years. The government is so concerned about space weather that it is now listed on its National Risk Register. Over the coming years, the spacecraft will tilt its orbit even further, so the best views are yet to come. 'This is just the first step of Solar Orbiter's 'stairway to heaven',' said Daniel Müller, ESA's Solar Orbiter project scientist. 'In the coming years, the spacecraft will climb further out of the ecliptic plane for ever better views of the Sun's polar regions. 'These data will transform our understanding of the Sun's magnetic field, the solar wind, and solar activity.' Scientists are hoping to learn how material moves in the Sun's outer layers and why the star's magnetic field flips every 11 years. One of the first scientific findings from Solar Orbiter's polar observations is the discovery that at the south pole, the Sun's magnetic field is currently a mess. While a normal magnet has a clear north and south pole, magnetic field measurements show that both north and south polarity magnetic fields are present at the Sun's south pole during the solar maximum. We are currently experiencing a solar maximum and, in five to six years, magnetic activity is expected to become more orderly. 'How exactly this build-up occurs is still not fully understood, so Solar Orbiter has reached high latitudes at just the right time to follow the whole process from its unique and advantageous perspective,' added Prof Sami Solanki, who leads the PHI instrument team from the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research in Germany. 'We didn't know what exactly to expect from these first observations – the Sun's poles are literally terra incognita.' Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Yahoo
6 hours ago
- Science
- Yahoo
Sun's south pole revealed for first time, in images from Solar Orbiter spacecraft
The sun's uncharted south pole has been revealed for the first time in striking images beamed back from the Solar Orbiter spacecraft. The joint European Space Agency (ESA) and Nasa mission swooped below the planetary plane and, for the first time, captured the sun's mysterious polar regions. The groundbreaking observations also mapped a chaotic patchwork of magnetic activity at the sun's pole that scientists say is key to understanding how the sun's field flips roughly every 11 years. 'Today we reveal humankind's first-ever views of the sun's pole,' said Prof Carole Mundell, the ESA's director of science. 'The sun is our nearest star, giver of life and potential disruptor of modern space and ground power systems, so it is imperative that we understand how it works and learn to predict its behaviour. These new unique views from our Solar Orbiter mission are the beginning of a new era of solar science.' The $1.3bn (£1.1bn) mission, which launched in 2020, shows the sun's south pole as recorded mid-March, when the craft had dipped to an angle of 15° below the solar equator to perform the mission's first high-angle observations. While the Earth – like a bar magnet – has a clear north and south, the sun's magnetism flips roughly every 11 years. The sun is currently at a solar maximum, the period when it builds up to a polarity flip, in which the south pole will become magnetic north and when sun spots and solar flares are most active. Solar Orbiter's first magnetic field measurements reveal a fragmented mosaic of both north and south polarity at the base of the sun. This patchwork of north and south had been predicted in computer models, but had never been confirmed in observations. Scientists say that tracking the dramatic changes in the sun's polar magnetic fields will be crucial to improving forecasting of the solar cycle. 'We didn't know what exactly to expect from these first observations – the sun's poles are literally terra incognita,' said Prof Sami Solanki, who leads the instrument mapping the magnetic field and is director of the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research (MPS) in Germany. The sun's magnetic cycle occurs because it does not rotate as a solid object, with its equator spinning faster (every 26 days) than its poles (33 days). This stretches and twists magnetic field lines around the sun until they become so unstable that north and south eventually flip. Prof Lucie Green, of UCL's Mullard Space Science Laboratory, who has worked on the mission since 2005, said: 'Everything in the atmosphere of the sun and whole character of the sun is generated by its magnetic field and how that changes over time. It goes from being a fairly quiet star to being a really active and dynamic star with explosions in the atmosphere. Although the models predicted that the field should be mixed up, it's something else to actually see it.' In five or six years, the sun will reach its next solar minimum, during which its magnetic field is at its most orderly and the sun has the lowest levels of activity. Current models and predictions of the 11-year solar cycle fall short of being able to predict exactly when and how powerfully the sun will reach its most active state. The only previous mission to have flown above the sun's poles was Nasa's Ulysses probe, launched in 1990, but while it took measurements of the sun's magnetic field and solar wind, it did not have a camera. Solar Orbiter will continue to orbit around the Sun at a 17° tilt angle until 24 December 2026, when its next flight past Venus will tilt its orbit to 24° and in 2029, the spacecraft will rise to an angle of 33° above the planetary plane.
Yahoo
7 hours ago
- Science
- Yahoo
European probe snaps first images of the sun's south pole
The first-ever images of the sun's south pole reveal a messy jumble of magnetic activity in a never-before-seen region of our nearest star. The images, taken by the Solar Orbiter spacecraft and released Wednesday by the European Space Agency, offer fresh insights into the sun's behavior, its magnetic field and how it produces space weather. 'The sun is our nearest star, giver of life and potential disruptor of modern space and ground power systems, so it is imperative that we understand how it works and learn to predict its behaviour,' Carole Mundell, director of science at the European Space Agency (ESA), said in a statement. 'These new unique views from our Solar Orbiter mission are the beginning of a new era of solar science.' The images have already been a boon for heliophysicists, showing turbulent magnetic activity at the south pole as the sun ramps up to the most active phase of its natural cycle. The solar cycle typically spans about 11 years, with the sun going from a quiet period of low magnetic activity to a highly active phase characterized by intense solar flares and solar storms. As the sun reaches peak activity — a phase known as the solar maximum — its magnetic poles flip, meaning the sun's south pole becomes magnetic north. Why exactly that happens is unclear, as are precise forecasts for when it will occur. Solar Orbiter may be able to tease out some of these answers. From the spacecraft's observations, scientists discovered that magnetic fields with both north and south polarity are currently present at the sun's south pole. This mishmash of magnetism is expected to last only a short time during the solar maximum before the magnetic field flips. Once that happens, a single polarity should slowly build up over time at the poles as the sun heads toward its quiet solar minimum phase, according to ESA. 'How exactly this build-up occurs is still not fully understood, so Solar Orbiter has reached high latitudes at just the right time to follow the whole process from its unique and advantageous perspective,' said Sami Solanki, director of the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research in Germany and lead scientist for Solar Orbiter's PHI instrument, which is mapping the sun's surface magnetic field. Scientists have enjoyed close-up images of the sun before, but before now, they have all been captured from around the sun's equator by spacecraft and observatories orbiting along a plane similar to Earth's path around the sun. But Solar Orbiter's journey through the cosmos included close flybys of Venus that helped tilt the spacecraft's orbit, allowing it to see higher-than-normal latitudes on the sun. The newly released images were taken in late March, when Solar Orbiter was 15 degrees below the sun's equator, and then a few days later when it was 17 degrees below the equator — a high-enough angle for the probe to directly see 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,' Solanki said in a statement. Solar Orbiter was launched in February 2020. The European-led mission is being operated jointly with NASA. In the coming years, Solar Orbiter's path is expected to tilt even further, bringing even more of the sun's south pole into direct view. As such, the best views may be yet to come, according to ESA. 'These data will transform our understanding of the sun's magnetic field, the solar wind, and solar activity,' said Daniel Müller, ESA's Solar Orbiter project scientist. This article was originally published on
Yahoo
12 hours ago
- Science
- Yahoo
Humanity Has Just Glimpsed Part of The Sun We've Never Seen Before
It might look like a regular patch of Sun, but what you are looking at in the image above is a sight humanity has never seen before. It's actually the Sun's south pole, and our first-ever glimpse of this region comes courtesy of a daredevil maneuver by Solar Orbiter, which plunged below the plane of the Solar System to catch an oblique glimpse of a part of the Sun usually hidden from view. "Today we reveal humankind's first-ever views of the Sun's pole," says astrophysicist Carole Mundell, director of science of the European Space Agency (ESA). "The Sun is our nearest star, giver of life, and potential disruptor of modern space and ground power systems, so it is imperative that we understand how it works and learn to predict its behavior. These new unique views from our Solar Orbiter mission are the beginning of a new era of solar science." The poles of the Sun have long been a white whale for solar physics. Like the other planets in the Solar System, Earth orbits more or less around the Sun's equator. So, too, has most of our solar instruments. This means that we've never had a clear view of the top and bottom of our star. It's a problem for many reasons, not least of which is that, every 11 years, those poles flip, and north and south polarity reverses. We don't have a good handle on why this process happens. A good, clear view of the poles would give a lot of new information that scientists could use to help figure it out. Solar Orbiter has just made the best effort yet to obtain that clear view. It's the perfect timing for this observation, too: the Sun is emerging from solar maximum, the period during which that polar flip takes place. In February 2025, the spacecraft, usually zipping around the Sun's middle, tilted its orbit by 17 degrees – enough to finally see the pole. Previous orbiters had only ever tilted their orbits as far as 7 degrees, with the exception of the Ulysses orbiter that, alas, carried no imaging equipment as it made three exciting loops directly over the Sun's poles between 1994 and 2008. "We didn't know what exactly to expect from these first observations," says astrophysicist Sami Solanki of the Max Planck Institute for Solar System research in Germany. "The Sun's poles are literally terra incognita." Three imaging instruments took detailed readings of the solar south pole over the days' worth of observations: The Polarimetric and Helioseismic Imager (PHI) probed the magnetic fields of the Sun as manifested by the polarization of its light; the Extreme-Ultraviolet Imager (EUI) took observations in the specified wavelengths to capture fine structures in the solar atmosphere; and the Spectral Imaging of the Coronal Environment (SPICE) instrument captures observations in ultraviolet and extreme ultraviolet to probe the temperature and composition of the solar corona. The magnetic field at the south pole was a bit of a fascinating mess during Solar Orbiter's observation period, with a mixture of both north and south polarities. As the polar flip settles down, one polarity will strengthen and the other wane, all the way to solar minimum, when the magnetic field will be at its most orderly before starting to fray again. Meanwhile, SPICE tracked the motion of carbon ions in the region of the solar corona known as the transition region, where the temperature rapidly spikes by thousands of degrees. The radiance map reveals how the ions are distributed, while the doppler map shows how fast the ions were moving away from or towards Solar Orbiter at the time of observation. How particles move around in the solar atmosphere is crucial to understanding the solar wind – the constant stream of charged particles that blows from the Sun out into the Solar System. In just a short time, the spacecraft captured enough data to keep solar scientists busy for years to come. That data, however, is just the beginning. Solar Orbiter is going to continue orbiting the Sun at a 17-degree tilt until December 2026, when it will kick things up a notch to 24 degrees. It will then ramp up to 33 degrees in June 2029. "This is just the first step of Solar Orbiter's 'stairway to heaven'," says ESA astronomer Daniel Müller. "In the coming years, the spacecraft will climb further out of the ecliptic plane for ever better views of the Sun's polar regions. These data will transform our understanding of the Sun's magnetic field, the solar wind, and solar activity." 'City-Killer' Asteroid Even More Likely to Hit The Moon in 2032 The Center of Our Universe Does Not Exist. A Physicist Explains Why. Stunning Direct Images of Alien Worlds Are Detailed Enough to Reveal Clouds
