Following a flyby of Venus in February that successfully increased its orbital inclination around the Sun, the European Space Agency’s Solar Orbiter recently imaged the Sun’s poles for the first time. The images are the first to show how the Sun’s immense magnetic field interacts at its poles, and will improve scientists’ understanding of the solar cycle and solar weather.
While the images are the first of the solar poles ever taken, they are not the last. Over the next five years, Solar Orbiter’s orbit will continue to increase in inclination, giving scientists unparalleled views of the Sun’s northern and southern poles.