The Solar Orbiter, a joint mission by the European Space Agency and NASA, has made groundbreaking observations of the sun’s southern region, providing an unprecedented view of our star in the midst of its solar cycle.
In March, the spacecraft captured detailed images from a unique angle, offering a fresh perspective that no other probe has achieved before. While previous missions primarily focused on the sun’s middle, the Solar Orbiter’s tilt allows it to showcase the chaotic activity erupting from the sun during this period.
The sun is currently experiencing its solar maximum, characterized by heightened solar activity that includes flares and sunspots. Similar to storm seasons on Earth, this 11-year cycle reaches its climax, resulting in massive eruptions and significant turbulence on the sun’s surface.
A remarkable and somewhat mysterious phenomenon observed by the Solar Orbiter is the flipping of the sun’s magnetic poles. Unlike a standard magnet with distinct north and south poles, both poles of the sun currently occupy the southern hemisphere. This magnetic reversal is a fleeting event during solar maximum, after which one polarity will dominate, leading to a complete reconfiguration of the sun’s magnetic field.
Sami Solanki, a leader of one of the instrument teams from the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, noted that the exact mechanism behind this build-up of magnetic activity is still not fully understood. He emphasized the advantage of the Solar Orbiter’s unique vantage point at high latitudes to closely follow these dynamic processes.
Launched in 2020, the Solar Orbiter utilized a gravity assist from Venus in February to alter its trajectory, moving out of the sun’s equatorial plane. This adjustment enabled its cameras to focus on the southern region with unprecedented detail.
While other spacecraft, such as the now-defunct Ulysses mission in the 1990s, have ventured over the sun’s poles, they lacked the visual capabilities to capture detailed images. In contrast, the Solar Orbiter is equipped with an array of instruments designed for various observations, including imaging the sun in optical and ultraviolet light, mapping the magnetic fields, and analyzing charged gas temperatures above the sun’s surface.
Understanding the solar cycle—the internal clock of the sun—remains a significant challenge for scientists. Many believe that the key to unlocking its mysteries lies at the poles. One of the primary objectives of the Solar Orbiter mission is to investigate these phenomena further, with the hope of enhancing predictions of potential space weather events that can disrupt satellite functionality, power grids, and navigation systems.
The March observations positioned the spacecraft 17 degrees below the solar equator, but as its mission progresses, the Solar Orbiter will tilt even more dramatically. By December 2026, it is set to change to a steep 23-degree angle, ultimately aiming for a 33-degree tilt by 2029, to comprehensively map both solar poles.
With these revolutionary insights, the Solar Orbiter is not only shedding light on the sun’s volatile nature but is also paving the way for advancements in our understanding of solar dynamics and their implications for life on Earth.
image source from：https://mashable.com/article/solar-orbiter-sun-south-pole-first-image
