ESA reveals first-ever view of the Sun’s south pole, unlocking secrets of magnetic flips and violent solar winds.
ESA revealed the Sun’s south pole image on June 11, 2025, taken on March 23 by Solar Orbiter
Photo Credit: ESA & NASA/Solar Orbiter/EUI Team, D. Berghmans (ROB)
The European Space Agency has released an image showing the south pole of the Sun. This image was taken on March 23, 2025, but was revealed yesterday on June 11, 2025. These new images from the Solar Orbiter spacecraft show a view of the Sun that has never been recorded before. Solar Orbiter spent its last months tilting its orbit to 17 degrees underneath the solar equator, bringing the elusive south pole to view, which could never be done before.
Carolle Mundell, the director of Science, told Live Science that today, we reveal the first ever views of the Sun's pole by humankind. The new images caught the solar pole in broader, visible and ultraviolet wavelengths, with the help of three of the Solar Orbiter's 10 instruments. These caught colourful confetti of the Sun's data, with fathomable tangles of its magnetic field. It flips with high velocity movement of chemicals and makes up the solar wind.
According to ESA, these data will provide an understanding of the solar wind, space weather and the 11-year activity of the Sun. Through the measurement of the Solar Orbiter's Polarimetric and Helioseismic Imager instrument, the Sun can be seen as throwing out flares in overdrive during the period of peak activity.
This mess of magnetic fields is temporary and flips after every 11 years. This signifies the end of the maximum solar activity and the beginning of the transition towards the relative calm of the next solar minimum. Further, after five to six years, when the solar minimum begins, the Sun's poles show only one type of magnetic polarity.
With the coming years, there will be many stances for the Solar Orbiter to test further. Through the little help of the gravitational pull of Venus, it will tilt its orbit again from the solar equator to 24 degrees in December 2026, 33 degrees in June 2029. This will help us know the Sun from different regions and, in turn, know about the magnetic field, solar wind and activity.
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