From Earth, we are always facing the solar equator. This year, the Solar Orbiter mission, led by ESA, broke away from this standard viewpoint by tilting its orbit 17° out of the ecliptic plane where the planets and all other Spacecraft observing the Sun are located. Now, for the first time, we can clearly see the unexplored poles of the Sun.
This image shows the view of the solar south pole taken by Solar Orbiter on 23 March 2025. It was taken by the Spacecraft’s Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (EUI) instrument, which captures the ultraviolet light emitted by gas at millions of degrees in the Sun’s outer atmosphere (the corona).
Solar Orbiter is an international collaborative Space mission between ESA and NASA. The Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (EUI) instrument is led by the Royal Observatory of Belgium (ROB).
Image description: Photograph of the lower half of the Sun, with a square region highlighted around its south pole. Taken with ultraviolet light, the image shows the hot gas of the Sun’s outer atmosphere -the corona- glowing yellow as it extends outwards in filaments and loops from the Sun.
