What if we could look at the Sun from a whole new angle, one we’ve never seen before?
From Earth, we always look towards the Sun’s equator. This year, the ESA-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 ever, we can clearly see the Sun’s unexplored poles.
Using different instruments, Solar Orbiter can see what happens throughout the Sun’s outer layers. The material in these layers never stays 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 both 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 the 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.
Read the full story here.
Solar Orbiter is a space mission of international collaboration between ESA and NASA.