Featured Image Credit: European Space Agency
Topics: Space, Science, Technology
Ellie Kemp
The European Space Agency (ESA) has managed to capture footage of a never-seen-before part of the Sun - in what I'm dubbing as a universe first.
Until now, every image we’ve seen of the Sun has come from around its equator.
That’s because Earth and all our spacecraft orbit in a flat ring around the Sun called the ecliptic plane.
Advert
But the ESA's Solar Orbiter has done something different - it tilted its path to look at the Sun from a whole new angle.
On 23 March 2025, it gave us something we’ve never seen before: the first-ever close-up views of the Sun’s south pole.
The Solar Orbiter was positioned 17 degrees below the equator, just enough to peek at the mysterious polar region.
And this is just the beginning - the spacecraft will keep tilting more in the coming years to get even better views.
Advert
It sounds simple enough and you might be wondering why it's taken so long for the Sun's south pole to be photographed.
Well, successfully getting a spacecraft in an inclined orbit around the Sun is an arduous task - and not to mention, mega expensive.
The entire Space Orbiter mission reportedly cost a mammoth $1.5 billion, and was in development for more than a decade before being launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida on February 10, 2020.
Advert
“Today we reveal humankind’s first-ever views of the Sun’s pole,” Professor Carole Mundell, ESA's Director of Science, declared.
“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.
"These new unique views from our Solar Orbiter mission are the beginning of a new era of solar science.”
Researchers are hoping these unprecedented photos will help solve big questions, like how the Sun’s magnetic field flips, why the poles seem so chaotic during solar storms and how solar wind is launched into space.
What we’re seeing now is just the start of a journey that could change our entire understanding of the star that makes life on Earth possible.
Advert
It's enough to make your head spin, right?
Space enthusiasts were quick to react to the exciting news over on Reddit.
"Behold the FIRST IMAGES of the Sun’s South Pole," one person posted into the R/SpacePorn community.
"Omg I can't believe it looks just like the rest of it!" one person teased, before hastily adding: "All jokes aside it’s wild that we are doing this. Wasn’t very long ago that we were using horses to get around folks."
Advert
Another quipped: "We've got sun's a** before GTA6."