First-Ever Images of Sun's South Pole Captured

A solar mission shared between the European Space Agency and NASA has captured the first-ever images of the Sun's south pole. Under the ESA's guidance, Solar Orbiter—which launched in February 2020 and has since snapped the closest pictures of the Sun ever taken—achieved a novel viewing angle through a tricky, Venus-led orbit this spring. The resulting images are already helping scientists untangle the Sun's mysterious 11-year cycle.

"Any image you have ever seen of the Sun was taken from around the Sun’s equator," reads an ESA statement published Wednesday. "This is because Earth, the other planets, and all other operational spacecraft orbit the Sun within a flat disc around the Sun called the ecliptic plane. By tilting its orbit out of this plane, Solar Orbiter reveals the Sun from a whole new angle."

The ESA first began tilting Solar Orbiter back in February as ...