Solar Orbiter Snaps First-Ever Images of the Sun’s Poles

The European Space Agency (ESA) has announced that its Solar Orbiter spacecraft has captured the first-ever images of the Sun’s poles from outside the ecliptic plane, or the plane that contains the Earth’s orbit around the Sun.

“Today we reveal humankind’s first-ever views of the Sun’s pole,” Professor Carole Mundell, ESA’s Director of Science, says. “The Sun is our nearest star, giver of life, and potential disruptor of modern space and ground power systems, so it is imperative that we understand how it works and learn to predict its behavior. These new unique views from our Solar Orbiter mission are the beginning of a new era of solar science.”

As of March 23, 2025, the Solar Orbiter shifts its viewing angle to 17 degrees below the Sun’s equator. It will swing between solar latitudes of -17 and 17 degrees so it can study both the north and south poles of the Sun — as well as everything in between. The ESA says that thanks to its tilted orbit, the Solar Orbiter has a unique viewing angle that the space organization says will change the fundamental understanding of the Sun’s magnetic field.

“Any image you have ever seen of the Sun was taken from around the Sun’s equator. 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,” the ESA explains. “By tilting its orbit out of this plane, Solar Orbiter reveals the Sun from a whole new angle. Now for the first time ever, we can clearly see the Sun’s unexplored poles. ”

The video above starts with the Sun in the frame as viewed from Earth. The grey images were taken by the extreme ultraviolet telescope on the Proba-2 spacecraft while the red-green lines show the solar latitudes and longitudes. The solid yellow lines show the center of Earth’s view. That changes to show the Solar orbiter’s tilted view, to highlight that 17-degree shift.

The photos were taken using the Solar Orbiter’s Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (EUI) instrument to take these images.

“What you see is million-degree charged gas moving in the Sun’s outer atmosphere, the corona. Every now and then, a bright jet or plume lights up this gas,” the ESA explains. A full breakdown of the science can be found on ESA’s website.

While interesting, the ESA says the best is yet to come, as this was just the first set of data and it will be analyzed further. Beyond that, the complete dataset of Solar Orbiter’s first full “pole-to-pole” flight past the Sun is expected to arrive on Earth by October 2025.

Image credits: ESA