The milestone of capturing the first-ever images of the Sun’s south pole was achieved by the Solar Orbiter, a joint mission by ESA and NASA. After a gravity-assist flyby of Venus in early 2025, Solar Orbiter tilted out of the ecliptic plane and captured those historic shots in March 2025 (ucl.ac.uk).
📸 Why it matters
- Uncharted territory: Prior to this, all solar images came from within about 7° of the equatorial plane. Solar Orbiter reached up to 17° below the sun’s equator, providing a unique view of the south pole (smithsonianmag.com).
- Magnetic revelations: The images unveiled a complex patchwork of magnetic fields, shedding light on the sun’s 11-year magnetic cycle and aiding space weather forecasting (theguardian.com).
- High-tech payload: Equipped with instruments like PHI, EUI, and SPICE, the orbiter captured details ranging from visible light to ultraviolet and magnetic data (iaa.es).
🔭 Mission Snapshot
- Name: Solar Orbiter
- Launch: February 2020
- Operators: European Space Agency (ESA) & NASA
- Historic Moment: First south pole images taken in March 2025, released June 2025 (en.wikipedia.org)
So in summary: 🎯 Solar Orbiter is the groundbreaking mission responsible for the first-ever images of the Sun’s south pole.