Latest news with #solarscience
CNET
2 days ago
- Science
- CNET
See the Sun in a Way You've Never Seen It Before, From Above and Below
Every image you've ever seen of the sun is looking at its equator, because Earth's orbit sits there with a 7.25-degree tilt. That means humans have never had a good angle to view the sun's north and south poles until now. The ESA has released images of the sun's north and south poles, giving everyone their first glimpse at the top and bottom of our nearest star. The imagery was taken by the ESA's Solar Orbiter, which began its trek to view the sun's polar regions in 2020. To do this, the Orbiter engaged its boosters, made some adjustments and slingshotted itself around Venus at a staggering 27,000 MPH. Once it reached its destination, it took images using its Polarimetric and Helioseismic Imager (PHI), the Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (EUI), and the Spectra Imaging of the Coronal Environment (SPICE) instrument. "Today we reveal humankind's first-ever views of the sun's poles," said Professor Carole Mundell, ESA Director of Science, in a blog post. "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." See the Solar Orbiter's stunning sun view The sun's poles. ESA The images are viewable above or in a YouTube video on ESA's channels. In the video, you can see the view that we Earthlings generally see before the video transitions to the solar orbiter's viewpoint and zooms in so you can see the bottom of the sun in all of its hot, fiery glory. The video is only 50 seconds, but it's 50 seconds of footage that humans have never seen before. Most of the ESA's images and videos are of the sun's South Pole, but the blog post includes imagery of the North Pole as well. For the most part, scientists had no idea what to expect from the data, given that this is the first time any human had seen it before. The full dataset from the Orbiter's first pole-to-pole adventure is set to reach Earth by October 2025, which will give scientists much more to work with in terms of understanding how the sun works. Future orbits will include measurements from all 10 of the Orbiter's tools, so even more information is coming over the next few years.
Sky News
3 days 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.
Telegraph
3 days ago
- Science
- Telegraph
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. 'Transform our understanding' '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. 'Unique and advantageous perspective' '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.'
The Guardian
3 days ago
- Science
- The Guardian
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 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 based at 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 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.
Forbes
3 days ago
- Science
- Forbes
Spacecraft Sends Back Historic First-Ever Images Of Sun's South Pole
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.'
