Europe's Solar Orbiter: Humanity's First Close-up Views of Sun’s South Pole | ESA

Europe's Solar Orbiter: Humanity's First Close-up Views of Sun’s South Pole | ESA

What if we could look at the Sun from an entirely new angle, one we have never seen before? 

From Earth, we always look towards the Sun's equator. This year, the European Space Agency-led Solar Orbiter mission broke free of this ‘standard’ viewpoint by tilting its orbit to 17°—out of the ecliptic plane where the planets and all other Sun-watching spacecraft reside. Now for the first time, we can clearly see the Sun’s unexplored poles. The Solar Orbiter mission is an international partnership between ESA and NASA.

Using its instruments, Solar Orbiter can see what happens throughout the Sun's outer layers. The material in these layers never remains still, being pushed outward and (usually) falling back to the Sun.  

Interestingly, it saw that the Sun's magnetic field has its north and south all tangled up with patches of magnetic polarities present right up to the Sun's south pole. This only happens once every 11 years at the point in the solar cycle when the Sun's magnetic field flips.  

Solar Orbiter will keep a close eye on the Sun—including its poles—for years to come. Its unique viewing angle will change our understanding of the Sun’s magnetic field, the solar cycle and the workings of space weather.

Learn more: 
https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Solar_Orbiter/Solar_Orbiter_gets_world-first_views_of_the_Sun_s_poles 

Credit: European Space Agency (ESA)/License: ESA Standard Licence 
Duration: 2 minutes
Release Date: June 11, 2025

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