European Space Agency reveals first-ever images of Sun’s south pole VIDEO/photo

The European Space Agency’s Solar Orbiter has captured and sent back to Earth the first-ever video and images of the Sun’s south pole, offering unprecedented insight into the Sun’s behaviour and its impact on Earth. 

These groundbreaking images are expected to help scientists better understand how the Sun cycles between periods of intense solar storms and calmer phases. This knowledge is crucial, as severe solar activity can disrupt satellite communications and knock out power grids on Earth. 

The new visuals show a shimmering, bright solar atmosphere reaching temperatures of up to a million degrees Celsius. These are interspersed with darker gas clouds, which, while much cooler, still burn at around one hundred thousand degrees.

"Today we reveal humankind's first-ever views of the Sun's pole. 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 behaviour,” Prof Carole Mundell, ESA's Director of Science told BBC, noting that the new data marks a significant milestone in solar research.

Seen from Earth, the Sun appears as a bright, featureless disc. But with special filters and different frequencies, scientists can view it as a dynamic sphere of fluid, its surface alive with twisting magnetic fields and erupting gas loops.

These magnetic fields play a key role in determining when the Sun becomes active and emits streams of particles toward Earth. Scientists have long known that the Sun undergoes an 11-year cycle, during which its magnetic poles flip, transitioning from a quiet, ordered phase to a chaotic one filled with solar storms.

Prof Lucie Green of University College London highlighted a major breakthrough made. 

"The reversal of the polar magnetic fields on the Sun has been one of the big open questions in science and what we will be able to do with Solar Orbiter is measure for the first time the really important fluid flows that grab pieces of the magnetic field across the Sun and transport them to the polar regions,” she stated.

The ultimate aim is to develop predictive models of the Sun’s activity, which would allow satellite operators, power companies, and aurora watchers to prepare for solar storms in advance.

"This is the Holy Grail of solar physics," said Prof Christopher Owen, a solar wind expert using data from the spacecraft. "Solar Orbiter will enable us to get to the bottom of some of the basic science of space weather. But a little more work needs to be done before we get to the point where we see signals on the Sun that we can rely on to predict eruptions that might hit the Earth."

In addition to capturing visual data, the Solar Orbiter has recorded the movement of chemical elements across various layers of the Sun using an instrument called SPICE. This tool measures specific spectral lines emitted by elements such as hydrogen, carbon, oxygen, neon, and magnesium.

For the first time, the SPICE team has used these spectral lines to measure the speed at which clumps of solar material move — data that could further explain how particles are ejected from the Sun in the form of solar wind. 

By Sabina Mammadli