Sun’s Magnetic Secrets Uncovered in New Solar Orbiter Images

In a breakthrough for solar science, the European Space Agency (ESA) has released the first-ever images of the sun’s south pole, captured by the Solar Orbiter spacecraft from a vantage point never before achieved.

The robotic probe, developed in collaboration with NASA and launched in 2020, used a gravitational slingshot around Venus to tilt out of the solar system’s flat orbital plane, offering a rare view from 17 degrees below the sun’s equator.

The images, taken in March 2025 from roughly 65 million kilometers away, come at a time of heightened solar activity.

These views are key to understanding the sun’s magnetic field, which flips direction every 11 years, triggering cycles of sunspots and solar storms. Until now, observations of the sun had been limited to a head-on perspective aligned with Earth’s orbit.

Solar Orbiter is designed to investigate how the sun generates space weather, including the high-speed solar wind that impacts satellites, power grids, and communication systems on Earth.

Future flybys will push the spacecraft even further out of plane, offering angles up to 30 degrees above the solar poles. Scientists believe these images could reshape how we understand the sun’s internal dynamics and long-term influence on our planet.