This is the first images of one of the poles of the sun – in all its splendor

Solar Orbiter is not the first spacecraft to study the solar poles, but is the first to send us back photographs of one of the poles of our star-which we always see in profile.

We, inhabitants of the earth, see the sun every day of our lives – but getting a truly new perspective of our star is something Rare and beautiful.

Therefore, consider yourself lucky: for the first time in history, scientists photographed One of the elusive Sun Poles.

The images are courtesy of solar orbiter. Led by the European Space Agency (ESA) with NASA contributions, this spacecraft was launched in February 2020 and has been monitoring our star since November 2021.

But the mission is just now to start its intriguing work: Study the poles of the sun, tell us a.

Both from the earth and from spaceships, our view of the sun has always been biased. “We have a good view of the central part of the solar disk,” says Daniel Müllerheliophysical and mission project scientist. “But the poles are in practice invisible, because we always see them almost exactly profile“.

We started Get a better perspective Earlier this year, when Solar Orbiter passed through Venus In a carefully choreographed movement that withdrew the probe of the ecliptic of the solar system, the plane that passes widely through the orbits of the planets and the sun’s equator.

Leaving Ecliptic is a expensive maneuver and that consumes a lot of fuel, But this is where the solar orbiter stands out: Until the end of the mission, the spacecraft orbit will be inclined 33 degrees in relation to ecliptic. It is this inclined orbit that allows solar orbiter to obtain unprecedented views of the solar poles.

For scientists, the new vision It’s invaluablebecause these poles are not just geographical poles; They are also magnetic poles – In a way. The sun is a huge whirlwind of plasma that produces and then erases a magnetic field. This is what drives the 11 -year solar activity cycle.

At least solar, the lower activity part of the cycle, the magnetic field of the sun is what scientists call dipole: It looks like a giant bar, with a strong pole at each end.

But As the sun spinsturbulent plasma generates solar spots, dark and relatively cold spots on the surface of the sun that are tangled with magnetic field lines.

As the Solar spots appear and disappearthese tangles unfold, and part of the remaining magnetic load migrates to the nearest pole, where it compensates for the polarity of the existing magnetic field.

The result is a bizarrewith the sun poles covered by a mosaic of magnetic polarities located “North” and “South”.

In the solar phase (in which the sun is currently), the magnetic field in each pole effectively disappears. It can be an irregular process – sometimes a pole loses its load before the other, for example.

Then, as the years pass and solar activity gradually decreases, the continuous process of development and dissipation of sunscreens creates a new opposite load magnetic field At each pole until eventually the sun reaches its state of calm dipole again.

Is They are not issues of academic curiosity; Sol activity affects our daily lives. Solar eruptions such as radiation and loaded plasma coronal mass ejections can cross the internal solar system to our vicinity, and are channeled out of the sun through the always changing magnetic fields of our star.

On Earth, these eruptions can disturb electrical networks and radio systems; In orbit, they can interfere with communications and navigation satellites and potentially harm astronauts. Therefore, scientists want to be able to predict this so -called space climateas they do with the terrestrial climate.

But for that, they need to better understand how the sun works – which is hard to do with just a glimpse of magnetic activity and around the poles of our star. That’s where the solar orbiter comes in.

Most spacecraft observations will not reach Earth to this fall. But ESA released initial images Of three different instruments aboard the solar orbiter, each of which allows scientists to glimpse different phenomena.

For example, the image above maps the magnetic field on the surface of the sun. And from this view, says Müller, of course the sun is in the maximum period of its activity cycle.

Heliophysical models predict “A tangled confusion Of all these different north and south polarity scraps everywhere, ”he says.“ And that’s exactly what we see. ”

As your agreement with theoretical models suggests, the solar poles are not fully mysterious kingdoms.

This is partly due to the fact that, although solar orbiter is the first to convey polar imagesit is not the first spacecraft to fly over these regions. This title belongs to Ulyssesa joint mission nasa launched in 1990 and operated until 2009.

Ulysses carried a series of instruments designed to study radiation particles, magnetic fields and more. And used them to make many intriguing discoveries over our star and its curious poles.

But it did not carry chambers, so despite all its knowledge, Ulysses left these regions as NOT VIEW VISIONS.

Happily, Heliophysics has grown a lot since these days – And space agencies have learned that, in the eyes of the public, an image can be worth much more than 1,000 words. The result: Solar Orbiter can finally put the spotlight on the sunshine.