\t\t\t\t\t\t11\/06\/2025<\/span> Thanks to its newly tilted orbit around the Sun, the European Space Agency-led Solar Orbiter spacecraft is the first to image the Sun\u2019s poles from outside the ecliptic plane. Solar Orbiter\u2019s unique viewing angle will\u00a0change our understanding of the Sun\u2019s magnetic field, the solar cycle and the workings of space weather.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Any image you have ever seen of the Sun was taken from around the Sun\u2019s 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. By tilting its orbit out of this plane, Solar Orbiter reveals the Sun from a whole new angle.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n The video above compares Solar Orbiter\u2019s view (in yellow) with the one from Earth (grey), on 23 March 2025. At the time, Solar Orbiter was viewing the Sun from an angle of 17\u00b0 below the solar equator, enough to directly see the Sun\u2019s south pole. Over the coming years, the spacecraft will tilt its orbit even further, so the best views are yet to come.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cToday we reveal humankind\u2019s first-ever views of the Sun\u2019s pole,\u201d says Prof. Carole Mundell, ESA’s Director of Science. \u201cThe 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.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n The collage above shows the Sun\u2019s south pole as recorded on 16\u201317 March 2025, when Solar Orbiter was viewing the Sun from an angle of 15\u00b0 below the solar equator. This was the mission\u2019s first high-angle observation campaign, a few days before reaching its current maximum viewing angle of 17\u00b0.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n The images shown above were taken by three of Solar Orbiter\u2019s scientific instruments: the Polarimetric and Helioseismic Imager (PHI), the Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (EUI), and the Spectral Imaging of the Coronal Environment (SPICE) instrument. Click on the image to zoom in and see video versions of the data.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe didn\u2019t know what exactly to expect from these first observations \u2013 the Sun\u2019s poles are literally terra incognita<\/i>,\u201d says Prof. Sami Solanki, who leads the PHI instrument team from the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research (MPS) in Germany.\u00a0<\/p>\n The instruments each observe the Sun in a different way. PHI images the Sun in visible light (top left) and maps the Sun\u2019s surface magnetic field (top centre). EUI images the Sun in ultraviolet light (top right), revealing the million-degree charged gas in the Sun\u2019s outer atmosphere, the corona. The SPICE instrument (bottom row) captures light coming from different temperatures of charged gas above the Sun\u2019s surface, thereby revealing different layers of the Sun’s atmosphere.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n By comparing and analysing the complementary observations made by these three imaging instruments, we can learn about how material moves in the Sun\u2019s outer layers. This may reveal unexpected patterns, such as polar vortices (swirling gas) similar to those seen around the poles of Venus and Saturn.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n These groundbreaking new observations are also key to understanding the Sun\u2019s magnetic field and why it flips roughly every 11 years, coinciding with a peak in solar 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.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n One of the first scientific findings from Solar Orbiter\u2019s polar observations is the discovery that at the south pole, the Sun\u2019s magnetic field is currently a mess. While a normal magnet has a clear north and south pole, the PHI instrument\u2019s magnetic field measurements show that both north and south polarity magnetic fields are present at the Sun\u2019s south pole.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n This happens only for a short time during each solar cycle, at solar maximum, when the Sun\u2019s magnetic field flips and is at its most active. After the field flip, a single polarity should slowly build up and take over at the Sun\u2019s poles. In 5\u20136 years from now, the Sun will reach its next solar minimum, during which its magnetic field is at its most orderly and the Sun displays its lowest levels of activity.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cHow 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,\u201d notes Sami.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n PHI\u2019s view of the full Sun\u2019s magnetic field puts these measurements in context. The darker the colour (red\/blue), the stronger the magnetic field is along the line of sight from Solar Orbiter to the Sun.\u00a0<\/p>\n The strongest magnetic fields are found in two bands either side of the Sun\u2019s equator. The dark red and dark blue regions highlight active regions, where magnetic field gets concentrated in sunspots on the Sun\u2019s surface\u00a0(photosphere).\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Meanwhile, both the Sun\u2019s south and north poles are speckled with red and blue patches. This demonstrates that at small scales, the Sun\u2019s magnetic field has a complex and ever-changing structure.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n Another interesting \u2018first\u2019 for Solar Orbiter comes from the SPICE instrument. Being an imaging spectrograph, SPICE measures the light (spectral lines) sent out by specific chemical elements \u2013 among which hydrogen, carbon, oxygen, neon and magnesium \u2013 at known temperatures. For the last five years, SPICE has used this to reveal what happens in different layers above the Sun\u2019s surface.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Now for the first time, the SPICE team has also managed to use precise tracking of spectral lines to measure how fast clumps of solar material are moving. This is known as a \u2018Doppler measurement\u2019, named after the same effect that makes passing ambulance sirens change pitch as they drive by.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n The resulting velocity map reveals how solar material moves within a specific layer of the Sun. Below, you can directly compare the location and movement of particles (carbon ions) in a thin layer called the ‘transition region\u2019, where the Sun’s temperature rapidly increases from 10 000 \u00b0C to hundreds of thousands of degrees.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n \t\t\t\t<\/p>\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n The left image shows an intensity map, revealing the locations of clumps of carbon ions. The right image shows a velocity map, where blue and red indicate how fast the carbon ions are moving towards and away from the Solar Orbiter spacecraft, respectively. Darker blue and red patches are related to material flowing faster due to small plumes or jets.<\/p>\n Crucially, Doppler measurements can reveal how particles are flung out from the Sun in the form of solar wind. Uncovering how the Sun produces solar wind is one of Solar Orbiter\u2019s key scientific goals.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cDoppler measurements of solar wind setting off from the Sun by current and past space missions have been hampered by the grazing view of the solar poles. Measurements from high latitudes, now possible with Solar Orbiter, will be a revolution in solar physics,\u201d says SPICE team leader, Fr\u00e9d\u00e9ric Auch\u00e8re from the University of Paris-Saclay (France).\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n These are just the first observations made by Solar Orbiter from its newly inclined orbit, and much of this first set of data still awaits further analysis. The complete dataset of Solar Orbiter’s first full \u2018pole-to-pole’ flight past the Sun is expected to arrive on Earth by October 2025. All ten of Solar Orbiter\u2019s scientific instruments will collect unprecedented data in the years to come.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThis 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. These data will transform our understanding of the Sun\u2019s magnetic field, the solar wind, and solar activity,\u201d notes Daniel M\u00fcller, ESA\u2019s Solar Orbiter project scientist.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n Solar Orbiter is the most complex scientific laboratory ever to study our life-giving star, taking images of the Sun from closer than any spacecraft before and being the first to look at its polar regions.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n In February 2025, Solar Orbiter officially began the \u2018high latitude\u2019 part of its journey around the Sun by tilting its orbit to an angle of 17\u00b0 with respect to the Sun\u2019s equator. In contrast, the planets and all other Sun-observing spacecraft orbit in the ecliptic plane, tilted at most 7\u00b0 from the solar equator.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n The only exception to this is the ESA\/NASA Ulysses mission (1990\u20132009), which flew over the Sun’s poles but did not carry any imaging instruments. Solar Orbiter’s observations will complement Ulysses\u2019 by observing the poles for the first time with telescopes, in addition to a full suite of in-situ sensors, while flying much closer to the Sun. Additionally, Solar Orbiter will monitor changes at the poles throughout the solar cycle.\u00a0<\/p>\n Solar Orbiter will continue to orbit around the Sun at this tilt angle until 24 December 2026, when its next flight past Venus will tilt its orbit to 24\u00b0. From 10 June 2029, the spacecraft will orbit the Sun at an angle of 33\u00b0. (Overview of Solar Orbiter’s journey around the Sun.)\u00a0<\/p>\n Solar Orbiter is a space mission of international collaboration between ESA and NASA, operated by ESA. Solar Orbiter’s Polarimetric and Helioseismic Imager (PHI) instrument is led by the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research (MPS), Germany. The Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (EUI) instrument is led by the Royal Observatory of Belgium (ROB).\u202fThe Spectral Imaging of the Coronal Environment (SPICE) instrument is a European-led facility instrument, led by the Institut d’Astrophysique Spatiale (IAS) in Paris, France. \u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n \nFor more information, please contact<\/b>\u00a0
\n\t\t\t\t604<\/span> views<\/small><\/span>
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t2<\/span> likes<\/small><\/span><\/p>\n<\/header>\n
\n\t\t\t\n\t\t<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\nAll eyes on the Sun\u2019s south pole <\/h2>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nMessy magnetism at solar maximum<\/h3>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nSPICE measures movement for the first time <\/h2>\n
\n\t![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/www.esa.int\/var\/esa\/storage\/images\/esa_multimedia\/images\/2025\/06\/spice_sees_movement_at_the_sun_s_south_pole\/26738453-1-eng-GB\/SPICE_sees_movement_at_the_Sun_s_south_pole_article.png\")
<\/div>The best is yet to come <\/h2>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nNotes for editors<\/h4>\n
ESA Media Relations\u00a0
media@esa.int\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
\n\t\t\t\n\t\t<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n