Latest news with #SolarOrbiter
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.
Sustainability Times
2 days ago
- Science
- Sustainability Times
Solar Pole Shock: This European Probe Just Captured the First Images Ever of the Sun's South Pole With Stunning Clarity
IN A NUTSHELL 🌞 The Solar Orbiter mission has captured humanity's first-ever images of the sun's mysterious south pole. mission has captured humanity's first-ever images of the sun's mysterious south pole. 🔍 The mission revealed a chaotic magnetic patchwork that is key to understanding the sun's 11-year polarity flip. that is key to understanding the sun's 11-year polarity flip. 🌀 The sun's differential rotation twists its magnetic field, leading to periodic reversals every 11 years. 🚀 The data from the Solar Orbiter will enhance our ability to predict solar cycles and mitigate the effects of solar activity on Earth. The unveiling of the sun's south pole marks a groundbreaking moment in solar exploration. For the first time, the European Space Agency (ESA) and NASA's Solar Orbiter have managed to capture images of this mysterious region, offering new insights into the sun's complex behavior. This daring mission, which involved maneuvering the spacecraft below the solar system's planetary plane, promises to deepen our understanding of the sun's 11-year polarity flip and its chaotic magnetic field. Scientists are hopeful that these revelations will pave the way for more accurate predictions of solar activity, which is crucial for safeguarding our technological infrastructure. First-Ever Views of the Sun's South Pole The Solar Orbiter mission represents a monumental achievement in space exploration. By swooping 15 degrees below the solar equator, the spacecraft captured humanity's first-ever views of the sun's south pole. This region, previously hidden from direct observation, is now in the spotlight, thanks to the collaborative efforts of ESA and NASA. The mission's success marks the beginning of a new era in solar science, as researchers are now able to study the sun's poles in unprecedented detail. Prof Carole Mundell, ESA's director of science, emphasized the significance of this achievement by stating, 'The sun is our nearest star, giver of life and potential disruptor of modern space and ground power systems.' Understanding these dynamics is crucial, as solar activity can have profound effects on Earth, disrupting satellites and power grids. This mission not only highlights the importance of solar research but also demonstrates the capabilities of modern space technology. Revolutionary Solar Tech Unveiled: Ultra-Efficient Panels with Breakthrough Nanolayers Set to Transform Energy at Lightning Speed Magnetic Mosaic Confirmed at Last Beyond capturing images, the Solar Orbiter has also unveiled a chaotic magnetic patchwork at the sun's base. This intricate mosaic, characterized by fragmented north and south polarities, had been predicted by computer models for years but was never directly observed until now. Scientists believe that these observations hold the key to understanding the sun's 11-year polarity flip, a phenomenon that fundamentally alters the solar magnetic field. Prof Lucie Green from UCL's Mullard Space Science Laboratory, who has been involved with the mission since 2005, remarked on the significance of these findings. She noted that the sun's magnetic field is responsible for its dynamic behavior, transforming it from a quiet star to one filled with explosive activity. By tracking these polar changes, scientists aim to improve forecasts of the solar cycle, enhancing our ability to predict solar storms and protect our technological assets. World's Largest Solar Telescope Unleashes 5.6-Ton Tech Beast to Capture Unprecedented Images of Massive Sunspot Activity Solar Spin Fuels Chaos The sun's unique rotation pattern further complicates its magnetic behavior. Unlike Earth, the sun exhibits differential rotation, with its equator spinning faster than its poles. This uneven spin twists the sun's magnetic field, much like a rubber band being wound up. Eventually, this tension leads to a magnetic reversal, flipping the north and south poles every 11 years. This cosmic reset is a critical aspect of the solar cycle, influencing everything from sunspots to solar flares. Despite decades of research, scientists still struggle to predict the precise timing and intensity of the solar cycle's peaks and troughs. As the sun approaches its next solar minimum, a period of reduced activity, the data collected by the Solar Orbiter will be invaluable. Launched in 2020, the mission will continue to provide insights as it orbits the sun, gradually increasing its observational angle up to 33 degrees by 2029. '56,000 Homes Become a Power Plant': California Firm Creates Largest Virtual Energy Source in US With Revolutionary Grid-Sharing Tech Solar Cycle Phase Characteristics Solar Maximum Increased sunspots and solar flares, magnetic field reversal Solar Minimum Decreased activity, stabilized magnetic field Implications for Future Solar Research The successful imaging of the sun's south pole not only expands our understanding of solar phenomena but also sets the stage for future research. As technology advances, missions like the Solar Orbiter will continue to push the boundaries of what we know about our closest star. The insights gained from these missions are essential for developing strategies to mitigate the effects of solar activity on Earth. As we look to the future, the question remains: How will the knowledge gained from these groundbreaking observations shape our approach to space exploration and our understanding of the universe? The answers could redefine our relationship with the cosmos and our place within it. Our author used artificial intelligence to enhance this article. Did you like it? 4.5/5 (22)
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
How to protect lawmakers, infinite workday, al fresco dining: Catch up on the day's stories
👋 Welcome to 5 Things PM! A familiar carrier landed top honors at the 2025 World Airline Awards, claiming the accolade for the ninth time in the 26-year history of the 'Oscars of the aviation world.' Here's what else you might have missed during your busy day. 1️⃣ 'We're not safe': The deadly shootings targeting Minnesota state lawmakers and their families have reignited the long-standing question of how to protect elected officials. In an increasingly toxic political environment, threats of violence against politicians are at an all-time high. 2️⃣ Legal nightmare: College sophomore Baylie Grogan passed away after a night out in Miami went horribly wrong. Because she hadn't named a health care proxy, her family couldn't make decisions about her treatment. Her mother has a message for other parents. 3️⃣ Artificial colors: Kraft Heinz will remove them from its products by the end of 2027 as synthetic food dyes face scrutiny from consumers and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. The brands affected include Kraft Mac & Cheese, Heinz ketchup and Jell-O. 4️⃣ Infinite workday: New research by Microsoft finds that the average worker is interrupted every two minutes by a meeting, an email or an instant message. It doesn't necessarily stop after they log off, and employees are struggling to cope. 5️⃣ Rats and regulations: Al fresco dining exploded in New York during Covid, creating a landscape of makeshift shacks and a new set of problems for the city. Some people aren't happy about how things have turned out. ☀️ Sizzling views: Solar Orbiter, a joint mission between NASA and the European Space Agency, is providing images of the sun's south pole. This never-before-seen footage gives scientists a chance to better understand the effects on Earth. • Trump demands 'unconditional surrender' in warning to Iran• DHS reverses course, allowing immigration raids to resume at farms, hotels, restaurants• NYC comptroller and mayoral candidate Brad Lander released after arrest by immigration officers inside court 💰 That's the federal minimum wage proposed by Republican Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri. If the bill moves forward, it could pave the way for the first increase in 16 years. 🇮🇹 'We will block the canals': Ahead of billionaire Jeff Bezos' wedding to journalist Lauren Sanchez in Venice, Italy, later this month, protests against the event have gained traction across the city. Residents have vowed to disrupt what is rumored to be a $10 million celebration. 🏎️ Racer's high: The star says his emotions while portraying race car driver Sonny Hayes in the upcoming 'F1: The Movie' differed from how he acts behind the wheel in his everyday life, when he is simply 'trying to be calm.' 🌎 Group of 7 leaders are meeting this week in which Canadian province? A. QuebecB. AlbertaC. ManitobaD. British Columbia⬇️ Scroll down for the answer. 🐕 'Top paw-spect': Bruce the Bat Dog made his Major League Baseball debut this weekend with the Washington Nationals. The golden retriever showed off his bat retrieval skills and leads the team in head pats and belly rubs. 👋 We'll see you tomorrow. 🧠 Quiz answer: B. The G7 summit is taking place in Kananaskis, Alberta, although President Donald Trump left early.📧 Check out all of CNN's newsletters. 5 Things PM is edited and produced by CNN's Chris Good, Meghan Pryce, Kimberly Richardson, Sarah Hutter and Morgan Severson.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Science
- Yahoo
Spacecraft unveils 1st-ever images of sun's south pole: 'Beginning of a new era'
Plenty of spacecraft and telescopes have throughout the years been able to observe the sun up close – with plenty more missions on the way. In late-December 2024, NASA's Parker Solar Probe got closer to the sun than any spacecraft before it. Earlier that same month, the European Space Agency sent a pair of satellites toward the sun to create "solar eclipses on demand." And in March, NASA sent four small satellites on its PUNCH mission to study how the sun's outer atmosphere becomes solar wind. But no spacecraft has ever gotten a good look at either of the sun's poles. Until now. In March, a spacecraft captured the first-ever clear images of the sun's south pole, which the European Space Agency released Wednesday, June 11. 'We reveal humankind's first-ever views of the sun's pole,' Carole Mundell, director of science for the European Space Agency, said in a statement. 'These new unique views from our Solar Orbiter mission are the beginning of a new era of solar science.' Here's a look at what the Solar Orbiter captured, and why ESA officials believe it will help scientists better understand our life-giving host star. Solar Orbiter: Newly-released photos capture the sun in highest resolution ever Before you saw the picture above, any image you have ever seen of the sun was taken from around its equator. Why? Because Earth, like all the planets in our solar system, orbits the sun along a line across a flat, disc-shaped plane in the sky known as the ecliptic. That means all the spacecraft we launch into orbit tend to do so as well. But by tilting the Solar Orbiter's orbit out of that plane, the ESA was able to reveal the sun from a brand new angle. The process began in February 2025 when the Solar Orbiter passed closely by Venus for a gravitational boost that allowed the spacecraft to push itself out of the orbital plane to see the sun at a higher angle. Then on March 23, the Solar Orbiter whizzed by the sun at an angle of 17 degrees, as compared to the 7 degree-orbit of all the planets and other sun-observing spacecraft, to get some historic snapshots of the south pole. A few days prior, the Solar Orbiter was also able to view the sun from an angle of 15 degrees below the equator while using its fleet of on-board instruments to observe the sun in different wavelengths – including visible light and ultraviolet light. The images were taken as the sun's peak activity, known as its solar maximum, begins to wind down. ESA scientists believe that studying the sun's polar regions could be key to unlocking secrets about the sun's 11-year solar cycle, which can cause space weather that disrupts satellites and even causes northern lights to flourish. "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," Mundell said. The Solar Orbiter launched February 2020 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida with 10 scientific instruments to study the sun. Its mission? Gather images of the sun from closer than any spacecraft before it and study the hot star's polar regions to understand things like the sun's atmosphere, its solar cycle and how solar wind forms. In November, the ESA released images the Solar Orbiter obtained in March 2023 that the agency said are the highest-resolution views of the sun's surface, known as the photosphere, to date. According to the ESA, the best views from the Solar Orbiter are yet to come. In the coming years, the Solar Orbiter will continue to orbit around the sun at even higher angles, reaching as much as 33 degrees in July 2029. Scientists at the ESA also expect to receive images of the north solar pole by October that the Solar Orbiter has already taken. 'This is just the first step," Daniel Müller, Solar Orbiter project scientist for the ESA, said in a statement. "In the coming years, the spacecraft will climb further out of the ecliptic plane for ever better views of the sun's polar regions." Eric Lagatta is the Space Connect reporter for the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at elagatta@ This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Spacecraft captures 1st-ever images of sun's south pole: See photos
1News
3 days ago
- Science
- 1News
Artificial solar eclipses created by two European satellites
A pair of European satellites have created the first artificial solar eclipses by flying in precise and fancy formation, providing hours of on-demand totality for scientists. The European Space Agency released the eclipse pictures at the Paris Air Show yesterday. Launched late last year, the orbiting duo have churned out simulated solar eclipses since March while zooming tens of thousands of kilometres above Earth. Flying 150 metres apart, one satellite blocks the sun like the moon does during a natural total solar eclipse as the other aims its telescope at the corona, the sun's outer atmosphere that forms a crown or halo of light. It's an intricate, prolonged dance requiring extreme precision by the cube-shaped spacecraft, less than 1.5 metres in size. Their flying accuracy needs to be within a mere millimeter, the thickness of a fingernail. This meticulous positioning is achieved autonomously through GPS navigation, star trackers, lasers and radio links. Dubbed Proba-3, the US$210 million (NZ$346.03 million) mission has generated 10 successful solar eclipses so far during the ongoing checkout phase. The longest eclipse lasted five hours, said the Royal Observatory of Belgium's Andrei Zhukov, the lead scientist for the orbiting corona-observing telescope. He and his team are aiming for a wondrous six hours of totality per eclipse once scientific observations begin in July. ADVERTISEMENT Scientists already are thrilled by the preliminary results that show the corona without the need for any special image processing, said Zhukov. "We almost couldn't believe our eyes,' Zhukov said in an email. 'This was the first try, and it worked. It was so incredible.' Two spacecraft of the Proba-3 mission aligning to create an eclipse to capture a coronagraph in space. (Source: Associated Press) Zhukov anticipates an average of two solar eclipses per week being produced for a total of nearly 200 during the two-year mission, yielding more than 1000 hours of totality. That will be a scientific bonanza since full solar eclipses produce just a few minutes of totality when the moon lines up perfectly between Earth and the sun — on average just once every 18 months. The sun continues to mystify scientists, especially its corona, which is hotter than the solar surface. Coronal mass ejections result in billions of tons of plasma and magnetic fields being hurled out into space. Geomagnetic storms can result, disrupting power and communication while lighting up the night sky with auroras in unexpected locales. While previous satellites have generated imitation solar eclipses — including the European Space Agency and NASA's Solar Orbiter and Soho observatory — the sun-blocking disk was always on the same spacecraft as the corona-observing telescope. What makes this mission unique, Zhukov said, is that the sun-shrouding disk and telescope are on two different satellites and therefore far apart. The distance between these two satellites will give scientists a better look at the part of the corona closest to the limb of the sun. ADVERTISEMENT "We are extremely satisfied by the quality of these images, and again this is really thanks to formation flying' with unprecedented accuracy, ESA's mission manager Damien Galano said from the Paris Air Show.
