A spacecraft has delivered the initial insight into the sun’s underside, showcasing a genuine hot mess. Our star, situated approximately 93 million miles away in the cosmos, is currently in a chaotic phase, having attained the summit of its solar cycle. Similar to the storm seasons on Earth, the sun experiences a recurring weather pattern every 11 years. At the start and conclusion of this cycle, flares and sunspots diminish. Nonetheless, solar activity escalates before it wanes, leading to grand eruptions.
The Solar Orbiter, a collaborative mission between the European Space Agency and NASA, captured intricate images of the sun’s southern area in March, a milestone no other probe has achieved at such proximity. While earlier spacecraft have photographed the sun’s midsection, the Solar Orbiter adjusted its angle to gain an unparalleled perspective of the south.
What its instruments discovered was not surprising, although it remains mysterious: the poles had inverted. Unlike a conventional magnet with clear north and south poles, both of the sun’s poles are currently located at the bottom. This occurrence takes place briefly during “solar maximum” before one polarity prevails, causing the entire magnetic field to reorganize in the inverse arrangement.
“How precisely this accumulation happens is still not completely comprehended,” stated Sami Solanki, head of one of the orbiter’s instrument teams from the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, in a statement, “therefore, Solar Orbiter has ascended to high latitudes at just the right moment to observe the entire process from its unique and advantageous viewpoint.”
The spacecraft, launched in 2020, utilized a gravitational assist from Venus in February to shift out of the sun’s equatorial plane. This trajectory alteration offered its cameras a new perspective to visualize the southern region. A prior spacecraft, the now-defunct Ulysses mission by NASA and ESA, traversed the sun’s poles but did not possess the ability to capture images.
The orbiter is outfitted with multiple instruments serving various roles. One images the sun in optical light, another records ultraviolet light, while two others chart the sun’s surface magnetic field and collect light from different temperatures of charged gas above the sun’s surface.
Although the foundation of the solar cycle—our star’s internal clock—remains ambiguous, scientists believe that the secret to grasping it resides at the poles. A primary goal of the orbiter’s mission is to unravel this enigma. Its discoveries may also improve predictions for space weather phenomena that can interrupt power grids, satellites, and navigation systems.
In the March images, the orbiter viewed the sun from an angle of 17 degrees below the solar equator. In the forthcoming years, the spacecraft will angle even further. By December 2026, the orbit will shift to a steeper 23 degrees. By 2029, it may achieve 33 degrees to comprehensively map both poles.