The Sun’s poles are of particular interest to researchers. For decades, the Sun’s poles have remained out of reach. Earth-based solar telescopes can only view the Sun from a flat angle, just like most space probes.
The only mission to fly over the Sun’s poles was Ulysses, launched by ESA and NASA, which made several passes between 1990 and 2009—but from far away and without cameras. Scientists believe the Sun’s poles may hold the key to understanding its powerful eleven-year cycle called Solar maximum– the period of greatest solar activity.
Researchers suspect that the crucial puzzle piece missing for a deeper understanding lies at the poles. Finding this piece of the puzzle is one of the most important mission objectives of Solar Orbiter.
To do this, the probe used a boost from its Venus flyby on February 18 to tilt its path out of the Sun’s flat orbital plane. In March, ESA and NASA’s Solar Orbiter tipped its orbit thanks to a clever slingshot around Venus, nudging it 17 degrees off the Sun’s equatorial plane.
Solar Orbiter captures stunning, high-resolution image of the Sun
Just before hitting that high mark, the spacecraft captured rare views from a fresh angle, 15 degrees above the ecliptic. And what it saw wasn’t serenity, but swirling magnetic chaos at the Sun’s south pole.
Three advanced instruments—PHI, EUI, and SPICE—captured rare images of the Sun.
PHI focuses on visible light, showing the Sun’s surface and its magnetic fields. EUI and SPICE look higher, into the Sun’s upper layers and corona, where solar wind is born. Together, their images help scientists understand how the Sun blasts particles into space.
The images revealed a tangled patchwork of magnetic polarities. Unlike Earth’s relatively steady magnetic field, the Sun’s is a dynamic, ever-shifting mix of small, powerful magnetic regions—especially near sunspots and the poles.
A new view of small sun structures
These tiny, chaotic zones combine to create the Sun’s much larger magnetic structure. For much of its 11-year activity cycle, this field looks like a simple bar magnet. But during solar maximum, something extraordinary happens—it flips. North becomes south, and vice versa.
“Solar Orbiter has taken up its new observation position at exactly the right time,” says MPS scientist and PHI operations scientist Johann Hirzberger. “PHI was able to map the magnetic field at the South Pole at a key moment,” he adds.
