Latest news with #PolarimetricandHelioseismicImager
Yomiuri Shimbun
a day ago
- Science
- Yomiuri Shimbun
Solar Orbiter Obtains 1st Images of the Sun's Poles
ESA & NASA / Solar Orbiter / PHI Team, J. Hirzberger (MPS) / Handout via Reuters A radiance map of the sun's south pole as recorded by the Solar Orbiter spacecraft is seen in this image released by the European Space Agency on June 11. The robotic Solar Orbiter spacecraft has obtained the first images ever taken of our sun's two poles as scientists seek a deeper understanding of Earth's host star, including its magnetic field, its 11-year cycle of activity and the solar wind. The European Space Agency on June 11 released images taken in March using three of Solar Orbiter's onboard instruments. They show the sun's south pole from a distance of roughly 65 million kilometers, obtained at a period of maximum solar activity. Images of the north pole are still being transmitted by the spacecraft back to Earth. Solar Orbiter, developed by ESA in collaboration with the U.S. space agency NASA, was launched in 2020 from Florida. Until now, all the views of the sun have come from the same vantage point — looking face-on toward its equator from the plane on which Earth and the solar system's other planets orbit, called the ecliptic plane. Solar Orbiter used a slingshot flyby around Venus in February to get out of this plane to view the sun from up to 17 degrees below the solar equator. Future slingshot flybys will provide an even better view, at beyond 30 degrees. 'The best is still to come. What we have seen is just a first quick peek,' said solar physicist Sami Solanki of the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research in Germany, who heads the scientific team for the spacecraft's Polarimetric and Helioseismic Imager instrument. 'The spacecraft observed both poles, first the south pole, then the north pole,' Solanki said. Solar Orbiter is gathering data on phenomena including the sun's magnetic field, its activity cycle and the solar wind, a relentless high-speed flow of charged particles emanating from the sun's outermost atmospheric layer that fills interplanetary space. 'We are not sure what we will find, and it is likely we will see things that we didn't know about before,' said solar physicist Hamish Reid of University College London's Mullard Space Science Laboratory, coprincipal investigator of Solar Orbiter's Extreme Ultraviolet Imager instrument. The sun is a ball of hot electrically charged gas that, as it moves, generates a powerful magnetic field, which flips from south to north and back again every 11 years in what is called the solar cycle. The magnetic field drives the formation of sunspots, cooler regions on the solar surface that appear as dark blotches. At the cycle's beginning, the sun has fewer sunspots. Their number increases as the cycle progresses, before starting all over again. 'What we have been missing to really understand this [solar cycle] is what is actually happening at the top and bottom of the sun,' Reid said. The sun's diameter is about 1.4 million kilometers, more than 100 times wider than Earth. ESA & NASA / Solar Orbiter / PHI, EUI & SPICE Teams / Handout via Reuters Eight views of the sun's south pole obtained on March 16–17, 2025, by the Solar Orbiter spacecraft's Polarimetric and Helioseismic Imager (PHI), Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (EUI) and Spectral Imaging of the Coronal Environment (SPICE) instruments are seen in this image released by the European Space Agency on June 11. 'Whilst the Earth has a clear north and south pole, the Solar Orbiter measurements show both north and south polarity magnetic fields are currently present at the south pole of the sun. This happens during the maximum in activity of the solar cycle, when the sun's magnetic field is about to flip. In the coming years, the sun will reach solar minimum, and we expect to see a more orderly magnetic field around the poles of the sun,' Reid said. 'We see in the images and movies of the polar regions that the sun's magnetic field is chaotic at the poles at the [current] phase of the solar cycle — high solar activity, cycle maximum,' Solanki said. The sun is located about 149 million kilometers from our planet. 'The data that Solar Orbiter obtains during the coming years will help modelers in predicting the solar cycle. This is important for us on Earth because the sun's activity causes solar flares and coronal mass ejections which can result in radio communication blackouts, destabilize our power grids, but also drive the sensational auroras,' Reid said. 'Solar Orbiter's new vantage point out of the ecliptic will also allow us to get a better picture of how the solar wind expands to form the heliosphere, a vast bubble around the sun and its planets,' Reid added. A previous spacecraft, Ulysses, flew over the solar poles in the 1990s. 'Ulysses, however, was blind in the sense that it did not carry any optical instruments — telescopes or cameras — and hence could only sense the solar wind passing the spacecraft directly, but could not image the sun,' Solanki said.
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Science
- Yahoo
Astronomers Just Took the First-Ever Picture of the Bottom of the Sun
Astronomers have gotten an unprecedented view of the bottom of the Sun. On Wednesday, the European Space Agency shared images that show, in all its tumultuous glory, our star's secretive south pole. Captured by the Solar Orbiter spacecraft, the stunning achievement has paved the way towards solving some of the Sun's most abiding mysteries, and could even provide us the insight needed to predict some of the star's volatile behavior that can disrupt our modern infrastructure on Earth. "Today we reveal humankind's first-ever views of the Sun's pole," said Carole Mundell, the ESA's director of science, in a statement. "These new unique views from our Solar Orbiter mission are the beginning of a new era of solar science." Our entire existence is centered on the life-giving Sun — but our view of it remains embarrassingly limited. We're only seeing its equator, because, like every planet in the solar system, the Earth is locked into the same unchanging orbit, known as the ecliptic plane, around the star. To an extent, so are our spacecraft. Breaking free of the ecliptic plane is an immensely fuel-intensive maneuver, and until now, only the ESA/NASA Ulysses mission, which launched in 1990 and ended in 2009, has flown high enough to see the Sun's poles. Unfortunately, it didn't have cameras to capture any images. To pull off its escape act, the Solar Orbiter performed several flybys past Venus, the second planet from the Sun, to get a gravity assist. Once it built enough speed, the spacecraft hurtled itself out of the ecliptic plane and reached a maximum viewing angle of 17 degrees below the solar equator. "We didn't know what exactly to expect from these first observations — the Sun's poles are literally terra incognita," Sami Solanki, director of the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research in Germany, who leads a scientific team in charge of one Solar Orbiter's onboard instruments, said in the statement. The orbiter caught the Sun's poles at a bit of an odd moment, however. Right now, the star, as part of its 11-year solar cycle, is nearing the end of its solar maximum, a period of heightened activity in its magnetic field, causing an uptick of its awesome outbursts like solar flares and sunspots. In the recent images taken with the spacecraft's Polarimetric and Helioseismic Imager, the strongest bands of magnetic activity, represented in dark red and dark blue blotches, fall over the Sun's equator where those outbursts occur. But most relevant here is that the solar maximum culminates in the Sun's magnetic field completely flipping — which makes for quite a mess at the top and bottom. As seen in the PHI view, the southern pole shows signs of both north and south polarity magnetic fields, and all very weak compared to the equator. In other words, right now our host star has no clear north and south pole. This is only temporary, and in about five to six years from now the star will again reach its solar minimum. Activity will calm down, and the poles will be restored to order. Or at least, that's the theory. "How exactly this build-up occurs is still not fully understood, so Solar Orbiter has reached high latitudes at just the right time to follow the whole process from its unique and advantageous perspective," Sami said. After years of collecting data with the Solar Orbiter's Spectral Imaging of the Coronal Environment instrument (SPICE), which can detect and track the presence of specific elements, scientists have also been able to measure how solar material travels through the layers of the Sun. This could be crucial in unearthing the origins of the solar wind, a powerful gust of energetic particles that are flung off the Sun at tremendous speeds and wash over the entire solar system. And there's more coming down the pipe. The Solar Orbiter has already taken shots of the solar north pole, which are expected to reach Earth this November. The spacecraft will continue flying at its current angle until December 2026, when it will perform another flyby of Venus to reach an even higher orbit of 24 degrees. More on: New Imaging Technique Makes the Sun Look Like a Swirling Pink Liquid
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Science
- Yahoo
See the Sun in a Way You've Never Seen It Before, From Above and Below
Every image you've ever seen of the sun is looking at its equator, because Earth's orbit sits there with a 7.25-degree tilt. That means humans have never had a good angle to view the sun's north and south poles until now. The European Space Agency has released images of the sun's north and south poles, giving everyone their first glimpse at the top and bottom of our nearest star. The imagery was taken by the ESA's Solar Orbiter, which began its trek to view the sun's polar regions in 2020. To do this, the Orbiter engaged its boosters, made some adjustments, and slingshotted itself around Venus at a staggering 27,000 miles per hour. Once it reached its destination, it took images using its Polarimetric and Helioseismic Imager (PHI), the Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (EUI), and the Spectra Imaging of the Coronal Environment (SPICE) instrument. "Today we reveal humankind's first-ever views of the sun's poles," said Professor Carole Mundell, ESA director of science, in a blog post. "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." The images are viewable above or in a YouTube video on ESA's channels. In the video, you can see the view that we Earthlings generally see before the video transitions to the solar orbiter's viewpoint and zooms in so you can see the bottom of the sun in all of its hot, fiery glory. The video is only 50 seconds long, but it's 50 seconds of footage that humans have never seen before. Most of the ESA's images and videos are of the sun's south pole, but the blog post includes imagery of the north pole as well. For the most part, scientists had no idea what to expect from the data, given that this is the first time any human had seen it before. The full dataset from the Orbiter's first pole-to-pole adventure is set to reach Earth by October 2025, which will give scientists much more to work with in terms of understanding how the sun works. Future orbits will include measurements from all 10 of the Orbiter's tools, so even more information is coming over the next few years.
Engadget
12-06-2025
- Science
- Engadget
Solar Orbiter captures images of the sun's pole for the first time
The Solar Orbiter has been observing the sun since 2021, but it recently went on a side trip to Venus which significantly tilted its orbit and gave it a good view of the sun's polar region. That is how it was able to capture images that will historically be known as humankind's first-ever views of the sun's pole. All our galaxy's planets and the other spacecraft we've deployed orbit the sun around an imaginary ecliptic plane along the star's equator. But thanks to the Solar Orbiter's Venus flyby, it now has a view of the sun from below its equator, allowing it to see the star's southern pole clearly. The images you see above were captured from an angle of 15 degrees below the equator on March 16 and 17, but the probe has reached the 17 degree maximum angle it could achieve since then. To view this content, you'll need to update your privacy settings. Please click here and view the "Content and social-media partners" setting to do so. Three of the probe's instruments were responsible for the images. The Polarimetric and Helioseismic Imager (PHI) imaged the sun in visible light and mapped its surface magnetic field. Meanwhile, the Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (EUI) imaged the sun in ultraviolet light, and the Spectral Imaging of the Coronal Environment (SPICE) instrument captured light "coming from different temperatures of charged gas above the sun's surface, thereby revealing different layers of the sun's atmosphere." So what exactly was the Solar Orbiter able to observe at the sun's southern pole? Well, the pole's magnetic field, simply put, is a mess at the moment. See, the sun's magnetic field flips roughly every 11 years, and it's about to flip this year if it hasn't yet. Normally, a magnet has a clear north and south pole, but the orbiter's PHI instrument showed that both north and south polarity magnetic fields are present at the sun's south pole right now. "This happens only for a short time during each solar cycle, at solar maximum, when the Sun's magnetic field flips and is at its most active," ESA explained. After the flip, the magnetic field fixes itself so that the poles have single polarities. The process is gradual, however, and it will take five to six years to achieve solar minimum, wherein which the sun's magnetic field is at its most orderly. These solar cycles or regular magnetic field flips aren't fully understood yet, and the orbiter's observations could be the key to unlocking that knowledge. In addition, scientists used the orbiter's SPICE instrument to take Doppler measurements, or how fast clumps of solar material are moving. They then took that information to create a velocity map that shows how solar material moves within a specific layer of the sun. These measurements can show how the sun flings out particles into space in the form of solar winds, which is one of the orbiter's key goals.
India Today
12-06-2025
- Science
- India Today
Europe's Solar Orbiter clicks world's first picture of Sun's poles
The robotic Solar Orbiter spacecraft has obtained the first images ever taken of our sun's two poles as scientists seek a deeper understanding of Earth's host star, including its magnetic field, its 11-year cycle of activity and the solar European Space Agency on Wednesday released images taken in March using three of Solar Orbiter's onboard show the sun's south pole from a distance of roughly 40 million miles (65 million km), obtained at a period of maximum solar activity. Images of the north pole are still being transmitted by the spacecraft back to Orbiter, developed by ESA in collaboration with the U.S. space agency NASA, was launched in 2020 from Until now, all the views of the sun have come from the same vantage point - looking face-on toward its equator from the plane on which Earth and most of the solar system's other planets orbit, called the ecliptic Orbiter used a slingshot flyby around Venus in February to get out of this plane to view the sun from up to 17 degrees below the solar equator. Future slingshot flybys will provide an even better view, at beyond 30 degrees. This image shows Solar Orbiter's view of the Sun's south pole on 23 March 2025. (Photo: ESA) "The best is still to come. What we have seen is just a first quick peek," said solar physicist Sami Solanki of the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research in Germany, who heads the scientific team for the spacecraft's Polarimetric and Helioseismic Imager spacecraft observed both poles, first the south pole, then the north pole," Solanki said. "The north pole's data will arrive in the coming weeks or months."Solar Orbiter is gathering data on phenomena including the sun's magnetic field, its activity cycle, and the solar wind, a relentless high-speed flow of charged particles emanating from the sun's outermost atmospheric layer that fills interplanetary space."We are not sure what we will find, and it is likely we will see things that we didn't know about before," said solar physicist Hamish Reid of University College London's Mullard Space Science Laboratory, UK co-principal investigator of Solar Orbiter's Extreme Ultraviolet Imager sun is a ball of hot electrically charged gas that, as it moves, generates a powerful magnetic field, which flips from south to north and back again every 11 years in what is called the solar magnetic field drives the formation of sunspots, cooler regions on the solar surface that appear as dark blotches. At the cycle's beginning, the sun has fewer sunspots. Their number increases as the cycle progresses, before starting all over again."What we have been missing to really understand this (solar cycle) is what is actually happening at the top and bottom of the sun," Reid The sun's diameter is about 865,000 miles (1.4 million km), more than 100 times wider than Earth."Whilst the Earth has a clear north and south pole, the Solar Orbiter measurements show both north and south polarity magnetic fields are currently present at the south pole of the sun. This happens during the maximum in activity of the solar cycle, when the sun's magnetic field is about to flip. In the coming years, the sun will reach solar minimum, and we expect to see a more orderly magnetic field around the poles of the sun," Reid said."We see in the images and movies of the polar regions that the sun's magnetic field is chaotic at the poles at the (current) phase of the solar cycle - high solar activity, cycle maximum," Solanki sun is located about 93 million miles (149 million km) from our planet."The data that Solar Orbiter obtains during the coming years will help modelers in predicting the solar cycle. This is important for us on Earth because the sun's activity causes solar flares and coronal mass ejections which can result in radio communicationblackouts, destabilize our power grids, but also drive the sensational auroras," Reid Orbiter's new vantage point out of the ecliptic will also allow us to get a better picture of how the solar wind expands to form the heliosphere, a vast bubble around the sun and its planets," Reid added.A previous spacecraft, Ulysses, flew over the solar poles in the 1990s."Ulysses, however, was blind in the sense that it did not carry any optical instruments - telescopes or cameras - and hence could only sense the solar wind passing the spacecraft directly, but could not image the sun," Solanki Watch
