A spacecraft has captured its first-ever images of the sun’s southern region, revealing a chaotic weather pattern that repeats every 11 years. The Solar Orbiter, a joint mission between NASA and the European Space Agency, has taken detailed pictures of the sun’s magnetic field and surface temperature.
The images show the sun’s poles have flipped, with both poles now occupying the bottom. This phenomenon occurs only briefly during “solar maximum” before one polarity takes over, reordering the entire magnetic field. The exact cause of this build-up remains a mystery, but scientists believe it lies at the sun’s poles.
Launched in 2020, the Solar Orbiter used a gravity assist from Venus to change its trajectory and capture these rare images. Its instruments map the sun’s surface magnetic field and capture light from different temperatures of charged gas above the surface. The spacecraft aims to understand the solar cycle, which affects space weather events that can disrupt power grids and navigation systems.
The orbiter will continue to tilt and observe the sun’s poles in future years, with new angles offering insights into the sun’s internal clock. Scientists hope its findings will improve predictions for space weather events and ultimately help protect our technological infrastructure.
Source: https://mashable.com/article/solar-orbiter-sun-south-pole-first-image