So far, astronomers have only been able to observe and examine our sun from the side, because the earth, all planets and all previous sun probes are at the level of the solar equator. But now the European “Solar Orbiter” spacecraft has gained a look at the South Pole of the sun and created the first recordings and data of a solar polar. This succeeded because the spacecraft circles around the sun on a 17 degree against the ecliptic orbit. Even the first data of the Solar Orbiter sent to Earth offer completely new insights into the plasma movements and the magnetic fields at the south of the sun. By autumn 2025, the spacecraft will further improve its view of the sun pole and provide further data.
Although our sun is the next and best -tested star, many questions remain unanswered. So it is still unclear where and how exactly the sun wind and the solar magnetic field are created. The changes in the course of a sun cycle have also only been partially examined. Because previous sun observatories on earth and in space had a crucial shortcoming: they all only see our star from the side, because the earth and almost all spatial probes circle the sun on the equatorial level. Every picture that was ever taken by the sun was therefore taken from this perspective. How the poles of the sun look, how they change over time and how the magnetic fields and plasma flows are structured there, remained hidden. So far, astronomers have only been able to understand the processes on the solar poles through model simulations.
Solar south pole at a glance
To change this, the European Space Organization ESA sent its sun probe “Solar Orbiter” on the journey in February 2020. At first she got swing to earth and Venus and then approached the sun until the beginning of 2021. Then the room probe swiveled into elliptical orbits, which is increasingly inclined to pole. On March 16, 2025, the Solar Orbiter for the first time reached a pension tendency through which it was able to catch a first glance at the southern pole of the sun. The recordings created from an angle of 15 degrees compared to the ecliptic are the first to ever have been made by a solar pole. A few days later, on March 23, 2025, the Solar Orbiter reached the maximum observation angle of 17 degrees so far. The ESA has now published the first recordings and data of this observation campaign.
“Today we present humanity the first views of a sun pole,” says Carole Mundell, ESA director for science. “These unique new views of our solar orbiter mission mark the beginning of a new era of solar research. The sun is our next star, lifelong and potential troublemaker of modern systems, both in space and on earth. It is therefore essential that we understand how it works and can predict its behavior.” The unique perspective of the Solar Orbiter will change our understanding of the magnetic field of the sun, the sun cycle and the functioning of space weather. During its first polar observations, the spacecraft initially recorded the solar south pole with three of its instruments: the Polarimetric and Heliosismic Imager (Phi), the Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (Eui) and the Spectral Imaging of the Coronal Environment (Spice) Instrument.
Chaotic magnetic field on the pole
An initial knowledge from the data transmitted by the solar orbiter is the discovery that the magnetic field of the sun at the South Pole is currently structured chaotically. Unlike the earth’s magnetic field, in which the magnetic field lines are arranged and moving from one pole to the other in the same polarity, there is far less clear polarity at the solar south pole. The magnetic field measurements of the Phi instrument show that magnetic fields of both poles are present and apparently arbitrarily mixed up there. As the sun researchers explain, this is related to the current phase of the sun cycle. Because in the course of the eleven -year cycle, the ligaments of the strongest polarity and magnetic field intensity reaching the sun gradually migrate from the solar equator to the Poles. When the solar maximum is reached, the sun magnetic field weakens and on the poles there is the first local overpens until the entire magnetic field “tips over” and rebuilt.
“How exactly this structure is carried out is not yet fully understood, so the solar orbiter has reached the high latitude at the right time in order to pursue the entire process from its unique and favorable perspective,” explains Solanki. The current measurement data confirm that the solar magnetic field is currently in the weakness and chaosphase typical of the solar maximum. In the next few months, the astronomers can see from the front row how the solar magnetic field reconstitutes itself and gradually increases in order and intensity. In five to six years, at the next solar minimum, it will have reached its greatest strength.
Moving “lumps” solar plasma
Another premiere provided the Solar Orbiter spice instrument. This imaging spectrographer measures the spectral lines of chemical elements such as hydrogen, carbon, oxygen, neon and magnesium on the sun. With the help of the current data, astronomers were now able to understand for the first time how quickly the various “lumps” solar plasma move near the pole. Because depending on the direction and pace, the spectral emission lines of these elements shift slightly into the bluish or reddish in the light spectrum. The spice instrument can make movements of solar material visible in different surface layers of the sun. A first speed map shows based on the carbon spectral lines how plasma moves in the thin transition region, in which the temperature of the sun increases relatively quickly from around ten thousand to several hundred thousand degrees. Among other things, such data can reveal where and how the sun wind is created. “Measurements made of high latitudes, which are now possible with solar orbiter, will revolutionize solar physics,” says Frédéric Ahrère from the University of Paris-Saclay in France.
These first data from the Solar Orbiter have already brought valuable new insights into solar physics, the complete data set of its first complete “Pol-to-Pol” flight rail will send the probe to Earth by October 2025. But the solar orbiter is only at the beginning of this decisive mission phase. “This is only the first step on the ‘heavenly ladder’ of the Solar Orbiter: In the coming years, the spatial probe will continue to fly out of the ecliptic level in order to get better and better views of the sun poles,” explains Daniel Müller from ESA. The Solar Orbiter will remain with a rail inclination of 17 degrees until Christmas 2026. Then he carries out another swingby at Venus in order to increase the angle of inclination of his track to 24 degrees. From June 10, 2029, the room probe should then reach its maximum height of 33 degrees above the ecliptic. “The data collected will change our understanding of the magnetic field of the sun, the sun wind and solar activity,” says Müller.
Source: European Space Agency (ESA)
