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Title: Solar Orbiter captures images of the sun's pole for the first time

Date: Thu, 12 Jun 2025 12:30:47 +0000
Link: https://www.engadget.com/science/space/solar-...

The Solar Orbiter has been observing the sun since 2021, but it recently went
on a side trip to Venus which significantly tilted its orbit and gave it a
good view of the sun's polar region. That is how it was able to capture
images that will historically be known as humankind's first-ever views of the
sun's pole. All our galaxy's planets and the other spacecraft we've deployed
orbit the sun around an imaginary ecliptic plane along the star's equator.
But thanks to the Solar Orbiter's Venus flyby, it now has a view of the sun
from below its equator, allowing it to see the star's southern pole clearly.
The images you see above were captured from an angle of 15 degrees below the
equator on March 16 and 17, but the probe has reached the 17 degree maximum
angle it could achieve since then.

Three of the probe's instruments were responsible for the images. The
Polarimetric and Helioseismic Imager (PHI) imaged the sun in visible light
and mapped its surface magnetic field. Meanwhile, the Extreme Ultraviolet
Imager (EUI) imaged the sun in ultraviolet light, and the Spectral Imaging of
the Coronal Environment (SPICE) instrument captured light "coming from
different temperatures of charged gas above the sunΓÇÖs surface, thereby
revealing different layers of the sun's atmosphere."

So what exactly was the Solar Orbiter able to observe at the sun's southern
pole? Well, the pole's magnetic field, simply put, is a mess at the moment.
See, the sun's magnetic field flips roughly every 11 years, and it's about to
flip this year if it hasn't yet. Normally, a magnet has a clear north and
south pole, but the orbiter's PHI instrument showed that both north and south
polarity magnetic fields are present at the sun's south pole right now. "This
happens only for a short time during each solar cycle, at solar maximum, when
the SunΓÇÖs magnetic field flips and is at its most active," ESA explained.

After the flip, the magnetic field fixes itself so that the poles have single
polarities. The process is gradual, however, and it will take five to six
years to achieve solar minimum, wherein which the sun's magnetic field is at
its most orderly. These solar cycles or regular magnetic field flips aren't
fully understood yet, and the orbiter's observations could be the key to
unlocking that knowledge.

In addition, scientists used the orbiter's SPICE instrument to take Doppler
measurements, or how fast clumps of solar material are moving. They then took
that information to create a velocity map that shows how solar material moves
within a specific layer of the sun. These measurements can show how the sun
flings out particles into space in the form of solar winds, which is one of
the orbiter's key goals.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at
https://www.engadget.com/science/space/solar-...
suns-pole-for-the-first-time-123047746.html?src=rss

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